Irony with cream on top

I remarked before on my relish for juicy examples of irony and this morning I pulled a plum from the pie!  I am busy at the moment designing a PowerPoint presentation on the battle of Jutland and this has caused me to re-read Robert K. Massie's book, Castles of Steel, a history of the Anglo-German war at sea in 1914-18.  This book followed his monumental and deservedly prize-winning book, Dreadnought - the best history book I have ever read!  However, that ends in 1914 but Castles of Steel takes the story through the war at sea and I would recommend his chapters on Jutland as the best short narrative to explain the battle to those with little or no naval expertise - er, me, actually ... just remind me, is starboard right or left?

Anyway, I can put it no better than Massie, himself, so here is an excerpt, and you will find the cherry at the end!

Accordingly, at 6.21 pm, [Adm.] Hood led his three battle cruisers [Invincible, Inflexible and Indomitable] ... taking station 4,ooo yards ahead of Lion.  Invincible now found herself on a parallel course with the five German battle cruisers, visible 9,000 yards off her starboard beam.  As Beatty's four battle cruisers already were engaging the three rear ships of Hipper's line, Hood's three ships, fresh from gunnery practice at Scapa Flow, trained their 12-inch guns on the two leading ships, Lutzow and Derfflinger, and immediately opened an accurate fire. [...]  From Invincible's bridge. Hood shouted into the voice pipe to tell the ship's gunnery officer, Lieutenant Commander Hubert Dannreuther, in the foretop [a small spotting platform high up on the mast from which the the guns were directed]: "Your firing is very good!  Keep it up as quickly as you can!  Every shot is telling!"

Meanwhile, Invincible was receiving as well as inflicting punishment.  One salvo hit the battle cruiser aft but caused no apparent damage.  Then, suddenly, Invincible was annihilated.  Commander von Hase, gunnery officer of Derfflinger, was watching. "At 6.29 pm, the veil of mist in front of us split like a curtain at a theatre," he said. "Clear and sharply silhouetted against the horizon, we saw a powerful ship ... on an almost parallel course at top speed.  Her guns were trained on us and immediately another salvo crashed out, straddling us completely."  It was Invincible.  Hase fired three salvos and the third fell on Invincible's amidships Q turret.  And then at 6.30, said Hase, "For the third time we witnessed that dreadful spectacle we had already seen in the case of Queen Mary and Defence." 

When the German shell penetrated Q turret, the flash ignited the powder in the hoist and travelled down the turret trunk to the magazine, causing both Q and P turrets' magazines to explode.  The whole central section - including boiler rooms, coal bunkers, and the two amidships turret systems - were ripped apart in a gigantic ball of crimson flame.  Masses of coal dust spurted from the broken hull, the tripod masts collapsed inward, and a ball of flame mounted into the sky followed by an enormous tower of black smoke.  The ship broke in half and the two severed hulks sank until each rested vertically on the bottom.  Then, when the smoke had cleared, a curious sight was seen. 

As the ship was 567 feet long and the sea was only 180 feet deep, the bow and the stern were seen standing seperately - a hundred feet of bow and a hundred feet of stern, each with red bottom paint and gray topside paint - rising perpendicular out of the water.  There were a few survivors nearby.  These men waved as Inflexible and Indomitable swept passed.  "I have never seen anything more splendid," said an officer in Indomitable, "than these few cheering as we raced by them." [...]

Only six men were rescued out of a crew of 1,031.  One of them, Dannreuther, the gunnery officer and Wagner's godson [my emphasis], had been in the control top on the foremast.  When he was picked up, he told his rescuers that he "had not a scratch on his entire body" and that he had merely "stepped off into the water when the foretop came down."

Perhaps I have an over-developed sense of the idiosyncratic but I can't help closing my eyes and shaking my head slowly from side to side at the irony of Wagner's godson being present at this Gotterdammerung of battles!

 

Comments

[DSD]

Tsushima was my favourite naval battle of the era - the idea of the Russians sailing through nearly 20,000 miles just to get their arses kicked in such spectacular fashion is irresistible.

[David Duff]

You have a cruel streak, 'DSD', I think you need counselling!

Actually, it served them right for sinking those Brit trawlers on their way!