A Better Rifle at Halloween

3rd Army prepare
30th August 1914, Rochefort.

Colonel General von Hausen was surprised by the sudden change in plans, his 3rd Army was moving up along the line of the Meuse river. The French and Belgians had not threatened his advance and he was still planning on forcing the river at Dinant. His four corps were spread out with the Army Heavy artillery supporting the attack on Namur, XI Corps was holding the southern bank of the river Meuse. With XIX Corps holding the line of the river as far south as Givet, the bridge at Givet had been blown up as soon as the Germans arrived. A number of locks existed along the river between Givet and Dinant and they may prove suitable places to force a crossing of the river. If a crossing could be forced his army would be able to get behind Namur forcing the French Fifth army to either retreat or be captured.
 
if I get a chance I will attempt to put together a map which shows all the position of the various armies and Corps at this time.
 
Map 30-08-1914
300814map.jpg

German and Entente positions as at 30-08-1914
 
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Looks like the Germans are being channeled.
Until the trap snaps shut it's very hard to tell the difference between getting channeled and a legitimate breakthrough.

Finally caught up with this thread, an interesting confluence of events! My compliments to @diesal, adding this thread to the watch list.
 
I dunno if they're being funnelled there's nothing in front of the German forces to stop them . Great updates and nice map too as it helps clear things up!
 
I count 30 German divisions against 12 British and 12 French, with German III Reserve Corps masking British 3rd Army at Ghent. I wouldn't rate an Entente division as equal to a German one, especially a British territorial with it's shite artillery. 6th French Army and the Foch detachment/9th Army better be forming up tout de suite, or a right floggings coming on, and not one we want to see.
 
I count 30 German divisions against 12 British and 12 French, with German III Reserve Corps masking British 3rd Army at Ghent. I wouldn't rate an Entente division as equal to a German one, especially a British territorial with it's shite artillery. 6th French Army and the Foch detachment/9th Army better be forming up tout de suite, or a right floggings coming on, and not one we want to see.
Issue is with the better than OTL resistance by the Belgians and the worse than OTL condition of the railway network how are those 30 divisions being supplied?
 
Issue is with the better than OTL resistance by the Belgians and the worse than OTL condition of the railway network how are those 30 divisions being supplied?
Honestly, I don't know. Every history of 1914 I've read don't really mention German logistics in the West, apart from the importance of rail and occasional distances from railheads. However the Germans ITTL had advanced much slower and have cover far less distance than in OTL. Most units are still unfought and have their initial warloads, which always seemed enough in OTL. Do you have any historic examples of German logistical problems up to September 1914?
 
Honestly, I don't know. Every history of 1914 I've read don't really mention German logistics in the West, apart from the importance of rail and occasional distances from railheads. However the Germans ITTL had advanced much slower and have cover far less distance than in OTL. Most units are still unfought and have their initial warloads, which always seemed enough in OTL. Do you have any historic examples of German logistical problems up to September 1914?
Given several weeks of fighting to take Leige, the Germans probably shot off a good chunk of their readily available field artillery shell reserve. Most units have their initial basic loads, but the stockpiles are likely to be both slower to arrive at the front to replenish those units that have a hot day in contact AND notably smaller than they were in OTL so releasing 10,000 shells to a corps is a harder decision TTL than OTL.
 
Honestly, I don't know. Every history of 1914 I've read don't really mention German logistics in the West, apart from the importance of rail and occasional distances from railheads. However the Germans ITTL had advanced much slower and have cover far less distance than in OTL. Most units are still unfought and have their initial warloads, which always seemed enough in OTL. Do you have any historic examples of German logistical problems up to September 1914?
Its a fair question - I am not sure when OTL their logistics started to break down

I do know that the planners absolutely maxed out what they thought the LOCs in Belgium could support

As it was only herculean improvisation and preplanning got them as far as they did OTL and relied on moving the railheads forwards but even then by the the time of the Marne battles pretty much all of the armies (bar 1 IIRC) would have been effectively out of effective supply range - meaning that even had they 'won' they would have been in dire straights and unlikely to have been able to advance further.

As it was the limits in road/Railhead/improvisations to supply and allow the northern flank attack limited the force to the size that was sent - meaning that Joffre was able to use the superior interior lines of communication to reinforce the north flank with more troops - outnumbering the Germans and resulting in them having to retreat.

But to your point - possibly not at this stage - as you say they have not advanced as far but more damage has been done to the infrastructure.

EDIT: A lot of the data / unit diary's etc was lost in WW2 due to the bombing of various cities and only recently has more data come to light particularly post unification
 
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Naval Ballistics
31st August 1914, London.

Percy Ludgate was having a meeting with Harald Taylor, Sir Frederick Tudor and Sir Percy Scott, they were discussing gunnery and the challenges of ballistics calculations in general. The four men, two civilians the others career Naval Officers all shared a common love of mathematics and a fine appreciation of the challenges and pleasures of solving a technical challenge. Harold Taylor had examined the Ludgate device and could see its application for a new calculating table to control the gunnery of both Battleships and Battlecruisers. The same system suitably modified could be used on smaller vessels, down to cruisers and potentially destroyers. At the moment they were planning what steps would need to be taken to ensure that the device could developed for Director Firing and what manufacturing and navalisation modifications would need to be made to make it viable. Once a development plan had been established, they moved swiftly onto developing a similar system for firing torpedos both for ships and submarines. Currently calculations for firing torpedos relied almost entirely on either slide rules or dead reckoning, ongoing range improvement research needed a matched improvement in firing calculations to utilise the improved range.
The next area of discussion was one which was of much more interest to the two Percys it was using the device for ballistics calculations and specifically for determining the optimum shape for Artillery shells in order to maximise their range. Currently artillery shells were fairly blunt their Ogive was on the order of 1.5 to 2 crh, it was understood that lengthening this would give improved ballistic performance but testing and optimisation was expensive. Instead work would be undertaken to use a mathematical model to determine the optimum shape for new shells using the Analytical Engine. Once a number of shell profiles had been designed they could be fabricated and tested, a new Ordinance testing range was to be built at Morecombe Bay which would enable the shells to be recovered after firing for examination.
It was decided that Thwaites and Reed would be contacted to undertake the mass production of the Analytical Engines for the Royal Navy, with other contractors to be called on as required. Ludgate would continue his design work and prototyping in Dublin but a number of additional research assistants and engineers would join his group, they would initially be based at Trinity College with access to their excellent laboratories and workshops.
 
It's also probable that the resistance in Leige would have been replicated all over Belgium with both coordinated and uncoordinated demolition of any lines of supply and communication. If there was such intentional sabotage throughout the country it would be a complete nightmare for German repair teams and it would take many months to fix all the damage hamstringing any possible advance....
 
Really enjoying this timeline, always look forward to a update notification. Keep up the good work and I hope you are able to complete it 😀
 
Brixton Prison
31st August 1914, Brixton Prison.
The young economist had just been arrested; his solicitor had advised him of the severity of the punishment which he would face if he was convicted. He had been remanded by a Justice of the Peace and was to be held at Brixton Prison prior to his trial which would take place at the Middlesex Sessions. He had just resumed a role at the treasury connected with the war, he would be immediately dismissed from that work; the scandal was more than the Government would endure. Forlorn and alone he stared at the rough blanket on the hard bed of his cell and then at the bars which screened the tiny window of his cell. His revery disturbed by hoarse screams, his movements became mechanical as though he was controlled by an outside force.
 
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