First Battle of Paralentum
The First Battle of Paralentum was a battle fought between the Naval Forces of Questers and the Imperium Doomanum (Doomingsland) on August 24th, 1944 (Questarian Dating System). It was a battleship versus battleship engagement with the use of superdreadnoughts and supercapital warships, most notably the famous Questarian Hood.
The war had progressed significantly and it came to the island of Paralentum, off Doomingsland. The Questarian Royal Navy was trying to capture island after island in an attempt to properly secure landing zones for its land invasion of Doomingsland. The Navis Imperium Doomanum was obviously trying to stop this. On August 20th, the First Battle Division arrived at Paralentum and was countered by the Classis Doomanus Boreus. It was expected the two fleets of roughly equal size would engage each other, but instead the two admirals, Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and Admiral Lucius Alexius Doomanus, younger brother of Emperor Maximus III, were equally cautious and refused to engage in case of a massive defeat. The two fleets stood off at 90 kilometres and did not launch missiles or torpedoes, in case it would provoke the other fleet into moving to engage. Finally, on the 24th, at 13:00, while Yamamoto was enjoying afternoon tea, Doomanus sent the following telegram.
"In the name of the Emperor, I, Admiral Lucius Alexius Doomanus challenge the First Questarian Battle Division to open battle."
Yamamoto was unsure of the answer; annihalation of his fleet was possible, but on the other hand it was his sacred duty to uphold the honour of the Empire. After slight discussion with Imperial General Headquarters, at 13:21 Doomanus received the reply from Yamamoto.
"The First Battle Division will engage to uphold the Honour of the Empire."
At once, the Doomani fleet sprang into movement, Doomanus' battle cry of "Dei gratia, delenda est Questaria!" (By the Grace of God, Questaria must be destroyed!)
Moments after the Doomani battle line began to move diagonally towards the Questarian line, and Yamamoto responded by moving his fleet parallel where be believed his superior armour would win. The Hood, with the two other supercapitals Vanguard and Repulse moved at 21 knots in its formation, the battleships forming a line behind the three supercapitals, with Yamamoto sending the simple yet now famous command "Follow me, for King and Empire, line astern!" The Doomani Admiral, however, was actually feinting and pulling Yamamato into a trap; his battle line did not depend on supercapitals and therefore had far superior manevourability, and in any case knew that Yamamoto would never disengage his core battleships to pursue the enemy. Doomanus was moving to feint a battle line whereas in fact he would reposition to fight at longer range, where their superior RADAR would have a better effect.
The first guns opened fire at 67,000 metres, the Questarian 81cm and 89cm artillery scoring several devastating hits, bracketing their targets after several salvos. At 62,000 yards the Doomani returned fire, their heavy guns aiming accurately at the Hood. The first rounds impacted against the ships belt, doing little to no damage or in some cases simply bouncing off. It was clear now to Doomanus that he had to avoid what Yamamoto was trying to press: engaging at close enough range where the massively thick Questarian belt armour would be at its best. Bravely, he kept up the feint even when, at 61,000 metres, the Questarian battleship line opened up. Now the Questarian doctrine of heavy guns throughout the fleet was reaping its rewards. Several Doomani battleships were sunk by concentrated fire when the Doomani finally concentrated their fire and sunk the first Questarian victim, the battleship Wolverine.
At 15:31, the battle line was completed with 58,000 metres of distance between the fleets. Slowly, the Questarian supercapitals were turning to optimal engagements, and Doomanus now realised the power of the Questarian fleet. Realising his tactic would not be viable at the present time, he instead decided to close the range and with his superior manevourability cross the T of the Questarian battleline. Because the Questarian supercapitals were at front and Yamamoto, following naval doctrine, insisted that the battle line be kept straight, this was succesful. At 16:02, the Questarians had lost ten battleships and one superdreadnought and the Doomani twelve and one superdreadnought. However, it was clear to Yamamoto that his T was going to be crossed, but with the super-low maneouvrability (it has never been measured, but conservative reports give the Hood a "tactical" turning radius of 18 kilometres) all he could do was move Vanguard and Repulse slightly off each others port, which at least allowed all the three supercapitals to fire their forward guns, eight turrets in total. The Doomani fleet successfully crossed the Questarian line's T at 16:13. Admiral Hyakutake and Admiral Hollingwood, in command of 1st Senkan Sentai and 2nd Senkan Sentai respectively requested permission to move up afront but were denied, and so the Questarian line was forced to use its front guns against the Doomani ships. The Questarians lost six battleships and two superdreadnoughts in this action, however, the devastating power, and accuracy of the the supercapital guns especially at closer range sunk eight Doomani battleships. The action was successful however as it proved that the Questarian naval doctrine was flawed, and tactically it put the Doomani fleet on top.
As the Hood advanced, Doomanus sped uphis battle line, but for the rear battleship Princeps it was too late; the Hood careered and broke it in half, pushing a large amount of tonnage under the waves. A group of Doomani marines boarded the Hood and made a charge against the ships personal defence armament.
See Boarding of HMS Hood.
