Chapter 165: The Final Battle

Obviously, Feng Chengqian had overestimated the two Renown-class battlecruisers.

As mentioned earlier, the Renown class was essentially the battlecruiser version of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, but in reality, this type of battlecruiser was much closer to the Revenge-class battleships.

In fact, when the funding for Renown and Repulse was requested from Parliament, they were still designated as the sixth and seventh ships of the Revenge class. It was only during the construction phase that the British Royal Navy discovered the Imperial German Navy had modified the initial design of the Derfflinger-class battleships—specifically equipping them with the main guns of the Bayern class, thereby surpassing the already completed Tiger—that urgent modifications were made. The successors to the Tiger were cancelled, and Renown and Repulse were converted into battlecruisers. For this purpose, a special appropriation was requested from the British Parliament, primarily because the construction cost of battlecruisers was significantly higher than that of battleships.

Thus, the roots of the Renown class lay in the Revenge-class battleships.

Within the Royal Navy, the Revenge class was actually a stripped-down, economy version of the Queen Elizabeth class. Initially, the Royal Navy was extremely satisfied with the Queen Elizabeth class because these battleships, which were the first to be armed with 15-inch main guns, surpassed German battleships in every performance metric. The problem was that the Queen Elizabeth class was simply too expensive; even with Britain’s vast wealth, the cost was unsustainable, while the German Empire continued to press forward relentlessly. The emergence of the Bayern class in particular posed a serious threat to the Royal Navy. Against this backdrop, the Royal Navy desperately needed a battleship that offered combat effectiveness comparable to the Queen Elizabeth class but at a much lower cost—and this was the reason behind the birth of the Revenge class.

Never forget that the Royal Navy had always valued firepower, embodying a typically offensive-minded navy.

In terms of firepower—especially main battery firepower—the Revenge class was identical to the Queen Elizabeth class, featuring four twin 15-inch gun turrets. The primary difference between the two classes lay in their propulsion systems. To reduce construction costs, the Revenge class took a major step backward: coal-fired boilers were used instead of oil-fired ones, and the propulsion output was reduced to 40,000 horsepower. Consequently, despite having a displacement only a few hundred tons less than the Queen Elizabeth class, the maximum speed of the Revenge class was merely 23 knots.

The problem, however, was that this still failed to resolve the issue of high costs.

One must bear in mind that on a battleship, forty percent of the cost was consumed by armor. Keeping the firepower unchanged while merely reducing propulsion did not significantly lower the overall price tag.

As a result, the protection capabilities of the Revenge class were also inferior to those of the Queen Elizabeth class.

For instance, the minimum thickness of the main armor belt on the Revenge class was only 55 millimeters, whereas on the Queen Elizabeth class it was 152 millimeters. Similarly, the maximum thickness of its deck armor—its horizontal protection—was a mere 50 millimeters, compared to 152 millimeters on the Queen Elizabeth class.

It was upon this foundation that the Renown-class battlecruisers were developed.

Without a doubt, the protection capabilities of the Renown-class battlecruisers could not possibly be good. One might even say that, having been built under severe financial constraints, only the firepower of the Renown-class battlecruisers was guaranteed, while their defensive performance was actually inferior even to that of the Tiger.

More crucially, the Renown class inherited many of the flaws of the Revenge class, some of which were fatal.

For example, the ammunition hoist passages for the main turrets on the Renown class featured only two fireproof and explosion-proof doors, whereas combat experience proved that even three such doors were hardly sufficient.

Furthermore, persistent design flaws that had long plagued the Royal Navy's capital ships were equally present in the Renown class.

For instance, in the arrangement of the magazine rooms, the propellant charges were still placed above the shells.

These flaws and problems sealed the fate of both Renown and Repulse.

At 10:11, a massive explosion tore through the bow of the Renown.

Much like the Barham, this was also a catastrophic deflagration of the main gun magazine. The difference this time was that turret B of the Renown was struck by only a single 380-millimeter armor-piercing shell. The shockwave from the explosion breached the two anti-flash and explosion-proof doors, and high-temperature gases rushed into the magazine, detonating more than ten tons of propellant.

Clearly, the officers and men aboard the Renown met an even more tragic end.

Following the doomed fate of being decapitated, the Renown stayed afloat for less than two minutes. Out of a total crew of 970 officers and men, only two survived; the vast majority of the crew perished and sank into the ocean along with the warship before they even realized what had happened.

The rapid sinking of the Renown also caught Feng Chengqian by surprise.

However, the battle that followed was not going to be so easy.

By the time the four Bayern-class ships shifted their fire toward the Repulse, the Bayern had already exhausted its supply of armor-piercing shells. During the engagement with the Renown, the final five salvos fired by the Bayern consisted entirely of high-explosive shells. The Baden was in a similar state, retaining just enough armor-piercing shells for two final salvos, while the Sachsen and Württemberg had only enough armor-piercing ammunition left for five and six volleys respectively.

Clearly, this meager supply of armor-piercing shells was far from sufficient.

One must remember that armor-piercing shells and high-explosive shells differed in muzzle velocity, projectile weight, and other characteristics, resulting in completely different ballistic trajectories. Consequently, different ballistic data were required when employing different ammunition types. To put it simply, high-explosive shell ballistic data could not be applied to armor-piercing rounds. Whether using armor-piercing or high-explosive shells, whenever ammunition types were switched, re-aiming and range-finding had to be conducted anew.

If all the remaining armor-piercing shells had been concentrated on the Bayern, the Repulse might have stood a chance.

Unfortunately, the gunnery hit rates of the Sachsen and Württemberg were not particularly high to begin with, so one could hardly expect them to achieve decisive results within five or six salvos. As for the Baden, after executing one range-finding volley, its remaining single salvo offered little hope either.

Consequently, having exhausted their armor-piercing ammunition, all four German ships resorted to high-explosive shells.

The problem was that a battlecruiser was neither a medium or small-sized vessel nor entirely devoid of armor protection. Even the earliest battlecruisers had armor designed to withstand 200-millimeter naval guns carried by armored cruisers, whereas the armor-penetration performance of 380-millimeter high-explosive shells was clearly inferior to that of 200-millimeter armor-piercing rounds. More importantly, high-explosive shells utilized impact fuses without time delays, rendering them virtually incapable of piercing heavy armor.

In fact, aside from projectile weight and hull material, the primary distinction between armor-piercing and high-explosive shells lay in their fuses. Over a decade earlier, the Imperial Navy’s high-explosive and armor-piercing shells differed solely by their fuses—high-explosive shells used impact fuses, while armor-piercing shells utilized delayed-action fuses.

Fortunately for the Germans, the situation of the Repulse was extremely unfavorable.

Having broken out alongside the Renown, the Repulse possessed very little operational independence. When the Renown was sunk, the engagement range had already closed to within 16,000 meters. Although the Renown sank rapidly and did not block the Repulse's path, the captain of the Repulse did not know whether there were any survivors from the Renown—that is, whether any crew members had jumped overboard to escape—and therefore altered course.

This adjustment made the Repulse even more passive.

One thing was certain: the four German ships would never miss any opportunity to strike the Repulse; otherwise, they would not have resorted to using high-explosive shells once their armor-piercing rounds ran out.

By 11:20, the Repulse had been hit nearly twenty times, two-thirds of which were credited to the Bayern and the Baden. Although high-explosive shells could not pierce the heavy armor of the Repulse, they effortlessly pulverized all exposed facilities and equipment.

As a result, following this round of fierce bombardment, the Repulse had essentially lost its combat capability.

At that moment, it was not that the Repulse could no longer fight—two of its three main gun turrets were still capable of firing—but both the primary and backup rangefinders had been smashed, the lookouts on both masts had been killed, and even the makeshift range-finding equipment temporarily installed outside the bridge had been blown away. More importantly, the four German ships were employing both main and secondary batteries simultaneously, and the dense storm of shells made it impossible for the crew of the Repulse to expose themselves outside. Consequently, without the ability to accurately gauge the distance to the German ships, the four 15-inch guns on the Repulse were reduced to mere decorations, forcing the gunners to aim purely by intuition. Obviously, gunners who had been in service for only a few months could never accomplish such a daunting task.

The Repulse did not cease firing, but its counterattacks were entirely meaningless.

At 11:35, the three Derfflinger-class battlecruisers caught up.

At this point, the Repulse was driven into a dead end.

While the four Bayern-class ships had expended their armor-piercing ammunition, the three Derfflinger-class ships still carried plenty of armor-piercing shells, and they were likewise devastating 380-millimeter armor-piercing rounds.

At 11:46, after being besieged by seven German ships for ten minutes, the Repulse finally stopped its struggle.

Half an hour later, after ordering all officers and crew to don life jackets, the captain of the Repulse gave the command to plant two time-delay charges at the bottom of the hull.

At 12:35, the Repulse sank following its self-destruction detonation.

The sacrifice of the Repulse was not entirely meaningless; it was precisely her stubborn resistance that bought the Tiger a chance to escape.

At the time, had the Repulse not stubbornly refused to cease fire, Feng Chengqian would not have ordered the three Derfflinger-class ships to close in and finish off the tenacious British vessel, and the Tiger would never have been able to slip away. It was precisely for this reason that the Tiger successfully vanished from the sight of the German ships after being pursued for more than ten nautical miles. Three days later, the Tiger returned to British home waters, entering the Bristol Channel escorted by two light cruisers.

The Repulse became the final British capital ship to be sunk by German warships in this curtain-closing battle.

Yet, another battle was far from over.