The Battle of Cornwall Bank, November 27th, 1925 (Part II)
15:40 PM - The Line of Battle
Despite having their "T" crossed, the Royal Navy battleships were able to successfully close their distance without major damage 20 minutes after the engagement begin. However, without destroyer escort, the Royal Navy cannot risk getting any closer, and begin to maintain a range of roughly 13,000 - 14,000 yards and engaging the allied fleet in a gunnery duel. As the Allied fleet also begin to sort themselves out following the rather hectic maneuver in attempts to remain in front of the approaching RN fleet, both sides are now able to bring their full firepower to bear.
However, despite having more guns (52x 14", 10x 15"
vs 44x 14", 12x 11"), more ships, and an arguably advantageous position, the allied fleet failed to inflict significant damage between 15:35 - 15:50. This is caused by
two factors.
1. The RN flagship
Revenge was the target of the majority of shots fired by the allied navy during its charge to close the distance from 15:22 - 15:35. However, as both fleet deployed into perpendicular line engagements by 15:35, the three Canadian ships in the front of the formation:
Prince Edward Island,
Nova Scotia, and
Quebec are still all firing at the
Revenge. Making the matter worse, unknown to the Canadian gunners,
Ocean is also engaging the
Revenge. This continued until 15:55, when
Quebec finally shifted its target to
Ramillies , and very soon observed a noticeable improvement in accuracy compared to other Canadian vessels.
Nova Scotia and
PEI each only scored 2 hits during the entire day time engagement.
New Brunswick were caught out of formation during the maneuver earlier, and spent considerable time trying to re-insert itself between
Quebec and
Ocean. Constant maneuver also threw off her aim and
Seen from the sppoting mast of Collingwood, there were so many shells landing near the revenge that making out individual splashes are near impossible. Despite the volume of fire, very few shots actually hit the Revenge as a result. The rest of the RN battleships were also able to engage the allied vessel with relative freedom. 2. Canadian fire control system and optics were also relatively backwards compared to those used in the RN and Marine Nationale. The newly purchased French equipments were never installed on the four battleships due to the need for a dockyard refit. This didn't matter much in previous engagements at night, but during a day time engagement with decent weather, the discrepancy begin to show.
15:50 - Realizing she was not being fired upon,
Huron attempted to close her distance from the west and, unfortunately, also begin firing upon the
Revenge. But since she was firing from a closer range,
Huron was able to score two hits before return fire drove her back to rejoin the main fleet.
In the meantime, return fire by the unengaged RN battleships were fairly effective. While
Revenge took a few hits that caused minor flooding and lost one of her forward triple turret,
PEI had been hit by over 10 14" shots which jammed her A turret and took on some water. All other allied ships likewise took several 14" hit each. Although given their superior belt armor, none of those hits were particularly damaging. Nevertheless, it seems that the Royal Navy are slowly reversing their disadvantage.
15:51 The Table Turns...Again
Unfortunately for the Royal Navy, the misfortune that brought their battleships into the present predicament had not left them. At 15:51, an 15" AP shell fired by the
Ocean had finally found its target. The shell smashed through
Revenge's thin upper armored belt and deck, before hitting her boiler room and knocking out a majority of her boilers.
Revenge immediately begin to slow to a speed of no more than 5 knots. A mere minute later,
Quebec scored another penetrating belt hit that knocked off power to
Revenge's propeller shafts and left her dead in the water.
15:54 Realizing
Revenge was hit hard, the RN immediately decided the best course of action was to disengage and regroup with the battlecruisers. However, a quick damage assessment had shown that while auxiliary generator restored some power to the
Revenge, her main engine was completely destroyed by the 15" AP from
Ocean and subsequent flooding. The allied fleet did not fail to notice that the
Revenge are barely able to make 7-8 knots even with her auxiliary engine at work. Thus they quickly closed their range and a destroyer attack was ordered.
16:00 The Fleet Turns....Again
As Canadian and French destroyers darted forward, it became obvious that a fighting retreat would doom the
Revenge. Considering that other than a lost turret,
Revenge had not lost much of her offensive capabilities. The RN fleet turned around yet again to cover the
Revenged. The last thing the RN needed was be accused of running away from a battle, abandoning their flag ship. To be fair, while their initial retreat was perhaps a safer choice, standing and fight are not exactly a bad decision given their relative success in the past 40 minutes of this engagements.
Alas, as a certain famous English playwright once wrote "When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!". The misfortune of the Royal Navy today did not end with the crippling damage suffered by
Revenge. Up until then, the relatively thin 10-11" belt armor of the RN battleship had held up surprisingly well, but as the Allied ships closed their range to chase down the
Revenge, the inadequacy of RN battleship's armor protection became more and more obvious.
16:06 - A 14" shell fired by
Quebec pierced the aft turret barbette of the battleship
Ramillies, which ignited the powders stored within and set off a catastrophic explosion that blew the ship in half even as it maneuvered to cover the
Revenge. The battleship
Collingwood was also hit several times by the
Redoutable and
New Brunswick and begin to slow.
This shocking event finally broke the RN's resolve to stand their ground. As one, the remaining battleship turned east and tried their best to disengage. While their effort to save the
Revenge could now cost the RN their entire battleship fleet, it did drove off the approaching Allied destroyers, and critically damaged the Oliver class destroyer
Smithers when a 5" shell set off her midship triple torpedo tubes. Which, at least for now, saved the
Revenge from getting torpedoed.
16:15 - The Pursuit Begins
By now, the winter darkness is but an hour or so away. Thus the Allied fleet made their best effort to catch the fleeing RN battleships before they are able to slip away into the darkness. At 16:15, the Battlecruiser
Huron spotted the RN light carrier
Charger north of the scene of battle, who find itself within the sight of the Canadian battlecruiser due to the RN battle line's collapse.
Huron firing on the heavily damaged Revenge (Right, on fire) while closing distance with the helpless carrier Charger (Left, seen being hit by a 6" shell).
Now the Canadian commander is looking to throw everything he has at the enemy. The carrier
Calgary, which were in the process of collecting the scout planes sent out 2 hours ago, is ordered to launch a strike as soon as possible with any and all available aircrafts. With only 4 Swordfish available (3 more were still returning from their failed attempt to strike the RN battlecruisers), the pilots were told to not wait for their squad mates and take off as soon as they are ready. As it was highly likely that they would not return before sunset, the pilots needs to risk either a night landing or ditch at sea. But no pilots backed down from the task.
Between the retreat from
16:06 to 16:45,
Revenge suffered another 10-15 hits from 14/15" shells, but continued to manage a steady 7-8 knots of speed. Most RN battleships have at least 6 guns that can fire rarewards and they did throw everything they have at their pursuers. The Allied formation were also slowed to about 18 knots as
PEI took another 10 or so 14" hits, at this shorter range, some of these shell did find their way past her armor.
16:54, the first swordfish launched by the Calgary arrived on scene (Seen diving towards the Revenge) and attempted its attack. Poor visibility and heavy AA fire meant the pilot failed to land a torpedo hit despite Revenge's slow speed. However, Revenge attempted to zig zag to avoid the incoming bomber, which only made it even more difficult for her to shake her pursuers.
17:30 - Following another failed attack from a lone swordfish,
Revenge finally found itself dead in its track after multiple 14" hit by Canadian battleships from a range of under 5000 yards. This knocked out her last auxiliary engine and she soon found herself swarmed by French destroyers that hit her with 3 torpedo's, which together with over 60 high caliber shot she received throughout the day, finally sunk the RN flagship by
~ 18:00. However, even in its dying moments
Revenge launched a torpedo from her underwater torpedo tube, hitting the
New Brunswick at 17:44. Fortunately, the torpedo bulkheads of the
New Brunswick absorbed most of the blast, and the flooding was contained within minutes.
17:55 - With three more RN battleship escaping into the darkness, the Canadian navy tried their best to run them down. The old dreadnought
Jupiter was found by 17:55 just slightly ahead of the sinking
Revenge, and was promptly sunk by torpedo attack from the French destroyers. This left two more battleship and a lightly damaged carrier to be hunted down. However, the RN battlecruiser squadron is finally close to the scene of battle, while they arrive too late to prevent the defeat of the battleship fleet, they may yet salvage this defeat...
It is now up to the Allied force to decide whether they take the risk and run down the remaining battleships, or take what is already an extraordinary victory and return home.
So this concludes the second part of this update. The battle is almost done but there is a last bit of twist left, so I will probably take another update to wrap things up and describe the few months that followed this battle.. As usual I hope you all enjoyed this update and battle, I wish you all a merry Christmas, and thanks to everyone for their support and interest in this AAR.