DREADNOUGHT AGAINST DREADNOUGHT.
In the afternoon of that same bleak January day the U50 was warped out of the Kiel Canal. Her petrol tanks had been filled, she had taken in fresh water and stores, and now she was bound for Heligoland, there to receive a new supply of torpedoes and explosive bombs before resuming her work of preying upon merchant shipping in the British Seas.
From the cliffs of the fortified island, Max Hilliger watched the squadron of German battleships going out. There were four great Dreadnought cruisers—Brandenburg, Lessing, Mozart, and Goethe—with six light cruisers of the Kotzbue class, and a flotilla of torpedo-boat destroyers. As they threaded their way through the secret lanes of the mine-field, he could hear their bands playing patriotic German music. He watched them until they disappeared into the night darkness.
They were timed so that by steaming across the North Sea at twenty-five knot speed they would be within gun-range of the English coast at earliest dawn.
Until shortly after midnight, when, with all lights out, they were crossing the Dogger Bank, the German commanders had no suspicion that their movements had been observed. Even with the most careful watch they failed to detect the low black shapes of a patrol of British destroyers rushing westward in advance of them.
At half-past seven on that wintry Sunday morning, the destroyers were already in communication with a great squadron of British Dreadnoughts and cruisers assembled, with steam up, hardly a score of miles ahead of them to the north-west. Signals were flashed back to the flotilla to give chase to the enemy, and, while keeping him in sight, report his movements.
Rodney Redisham was in his bunk in the light cruiser Dauntless when the bugle sounded "General Quarters." He dressed quickly in his warmest winter clothing and went up on deck. There was a film of mist across the sea. The air was very cold, and a powder of rime frost lay white upon the rails, the gun covers, and all upper works.
"The enemy is out!" one of his fellow midshipmen gleefully told him. "I believe we have nabbed him, this time."
Every man of the ship's company was alert and inwardly excited at the prospect of an engagement. The decks were cleared for action, guns were loaded; everything was got ready. Rodney climbed up to the forward fire-control platform.
From this position he could see the whole of the British battle squadron as the ships took their places in the line of pursuit, led by the vice-admiral's big flagship, the Saturn. She was closely followed by the Avenger, the Patroclus, the Tremendous, and the Auckland—five formidable floating fortresses, each carrying eight 13.5-inch guns. Supporting these Dreadnoughts were the Sarpedon, the Athene, the Rutland, and other light cruisers, escorted by destroyers. They were steering to the south-east, working up their speed to a uniform twenty-five knots.