At 0950hrs Graschdanin weighed anchor, followed soon after by Bayan and Vice Admiral Bakhirev ordered: ‘If the enemy moves nearer, open fire’.
At 1004hrs Graschdanin opened fire on the eastern group of minesweepers. Then Slava also opened fire using her stern turret. Soon afterwards Bayan also opened fire and then Turkmenets-Stravropski and Donskoi Kazak also joined the target practice on the minesweepers at a range of 65 to 70 cables (11,800 to 12,800 metres). The minesweepers responded quickly and developed a smoke screen.
By 1000hrs the German minesweepers were abeam the northern edge of the rectangular minefield and Vizeadmiral Behncke gave the signal ‘utmost power’. Now König and Kronprinz dashed forward, slightly en echelon, so that the latter could bring her guns to bear. At 1013hrs König opened fire on Slava to the right and at 1017hrs Kronprinz opened fire on Graschdanin to the left.[1] Further to the left was the armoured cruiser Bayan which remained untargeted by enemy fire until the conclusion of the battle, when König took her briefly under fire. The fire of König, under the direction of I Artillery Offizier, Kapitänleutnant Ernst Meusel, was rapid and well laid and three shells from the third salvo struck Slava below the waterline.
The first pair of projectiles struck the bow 10 to 12 feet below the waterline. The first hit the bow dynamo engine room and exploded either against the hull, or in a ventilation shaft, and produced a huge hole in the interior hull about 3.6 metres in diameter. The electrical power to the bow immediately failed. The crew in the dynamo room were quick witted but barely managed to escape through an emergency exit as the water flooded into all the compartments up to the battery deck. The hatch was torn to pieces, as was the door to the lower compartment of the bow 12-inch turret, and water flooded the bow 12-inch magazine. The other projectile of this pair made an underwater hole in the compartment of the wet stores and capstan flat, which were flooded. The bow immediately took on a total of 1130 tonnes of water.
As a result of these damaging hits the ship immediately took a list of 4 to 5°, which after several minutes increased to 8°. The chief engineer, Mazurenko, ordered counterflooding on the starboard side which reduced the list to 4°. He then went to report the extent of the damage to the commander, Captain 1st Rank Antonov. The bows sank 5 feet deeper, with an average increase of 2 feet, so that the draught at the bow was 31 – 32 feet, and aft was 29 – 30 feet. The bulkheads held nicely, with only a slight leakage through electrical connections.
The third shell from König’s salvo struck the port side of the hull underwater, against the port engine room armour. Luckily however, the armour held and the explosive effect barely damaged the hull, so that the slight leakage could be controlled with the pumps available.
A short time later, at 1024hrs, another two projectiles struck Slava together. One struck on the port side near the forward funnel in the chapel flat, which was being used as a first aid station, and the other struck the battery deck. The first shell disrupted lockers, firefighting equipment (which caused flooding), ladders, a 6-inch magazine and the forward stokehold. A fire started on the upper deck. The forward dressing station was wrecked and there were dead and wounded sailors there. The executive officer, Starchi Leitenant Galler, arrived from the Central Battle Post and took charge of the firefighting. Despite difficulties locating the seat of the blaze because of the thick gas and smoke, the fire was extinguished after ten to fifteen minutes.
Flames, gas and smoke spread across the funnel and emergency exit to the conning tower. Gases from the exploding projectile also penetrated the bunker of the forward boiler room and the handling room of the left bow 6-inch turret. The stokers remained at their stations, but the 6-inch magazine was flooded as a precaution.
Finally at 1039hrs Slava received another two underwater hits. One projectile struck near the boiler room, the other on the armour outside the wireless-telegraphy cabin. In the boiler room compartment three men were killed, including one who was decapitated. The hit on the armour holed it and wrecked the bulkhead of a coal bunker.
In the meantime, Kronprinz had opened fire on Graschdanin. At almost the same instant as the first hit on Slava, two projectiles also struck Graschdanin. One hit on the stern and holed the upper deck before detonating underneath and demolishing several cabins. Splinters pierced the next deck and the battery deck. The resulting fire produced thick, dark poisonous smoke but the fire was quickly extinguished. The second shell struck the upper belt armour beneath the middle 6-inch turret at an acute angle and consequently only dented the plate before detonating. A large number of splinters holed the hull and damaged two dynamo engines and several steam pipes.
The Russian ships initially continued to fire on the 3 MSHF, before changing target to the German battleships. As the range decreased, the armoured cruiser Bayan also opened fire with her three 8-inch guns. Then, at around 1030hrs, Vice Admiral Bakhirev gave the VI Div TBD and XI Div TBD orders to retire to the north, to make way for the battleships. Subsequently the order was given ‘MSRZ [Naval Forces of the Riga Gulf], withdraw’. Slava and Graschdanin now made their way to the north towards the dredged channel and passed out of range of the German battleships, the shortest range having been 16,500 meters. Accordingly, König transferred her fire to Bayan. Vice Admiral Bakhirev had decided Bayan would go last and in the meantime would offer herself as a decoy. Salvo after salvo, eight in rapid succession, now crashed around the Russian cruiser, whilst Captain 1st Rank Timirev used his engines and rudder to twist and turn his ship to evade destruction. He wrote:
I shall never forget the next 15 minutes, conscious that the slightest malfunction of the engines or steering gear would make us an easy target, and one hit could send us to the bottom, it was difficult to preserve the coolness duty demanded. I was supported during this trial but the hero was M. K. Bakhirev, who maintained complete calmness on the bridge, not interfering at all with management, and only casting a sympathetic glance and smile as I played the mad ‘game’ on the engine telegraph. At last Graschdanin had disappeared towards Schildau Island and Bakhirev ordered me in a low voice: ‘withdraw!’
With the last salvo from König a projectile struck the Russian cruiser. The 30.5cm shell struck to starboard near the bridge and penetrated the deck near the forward 8-inch turret, then penetrated the armoured deck and entered the cable compartment. The shell then exploded and set fire to much combustible materiaclass="underline" rope, canvas, hemp and the like. The fire gave off a large volume of thick, suffocating, acrid smoke, which hindered visibility ahead from the bridge. The explosion also destroyed a bulkhead and wrecked the capstan room and some provisions, tore eight ribs and the internal plating of the double bottom and displaced several plates of the upper armoured belt. The proximity of the fire to the 6- and 8-inch magazines meant these had to be flooded and the draught forward increased to 26 feet. With the flooding and water entering through splinter holes around 1,000 tonnes of water entered the ship. The fire burned for around twenty-four hours before finally being extinguished. Two men were killed instantly, three died later of their wounds, and three men were wounded.
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1. By a curious turn of fate