AHC: A success close blockade of Royal Navy in ww1

Thomas1195

Banned
In OTL, by 1912 RN had to abandon close blockade because of mine and submarine threats making it impossible and too risky.

But have an earlier POD, even a POD in 1890s, would there be anyway to make it into a success? I know it is quite ASB, but are there any chances?
 
Once the RN started convoying to the Netherlands and Norway there was nothing close blockade could accomplish that distant blockade and merchant convoys couldn't apart from the couple of destroyer flotillas deployed to and from Flanders in late 1916 early 1917.

Also the submarine and mine don't alone don't make close blockade too risky,; they can be swept and hunted and blockaded themselves. The real problem was the submarine and mine in concert with the worlds 2nd most powerful battlefleet, so the battlefleet can't be fought without reference to the mines and subs and the mines and subs can't be countered because of the battlefleet. The answer of course is a decisive RN victory at Jutland, the remains of the HSF wouldn't be powerful enough to stop the RN sweeping the defensive mines and setting barrages for subs up close to the Heligoland bight.
 
Top