AHC: Hoch See Flotte challenge!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to wank out the Imperial German Navy from 1914 - 1918. No early sealion wankage or anything like that, however. Basically, what would be the very best case scenario for the High Seas Fleet, which ends in 1918 with a German/Central Powers victory in the Great War.
 
The Germans win the race to the sea, giving them bases for light forces on the French Channel coast. German light forces engage in cut and thrust fighting in Channel making gaining control of the Channel the main British war aim. Light forces are gathered from the GF and elsewhere and concentrate in an arc from Harwich to Southhampton and gain ascendency over the German light forces by late 1915.

In late May 1916, under cover of darkenss of 3 night all the available German destroyers and light cruisers based on the channel redeploy home. Then on May 31 the HSF puts to sea, forewarned the GF puts to sea with a preponderance of capital ships, but due to the fighting in the Channel a dearth of destroyers and light cruisers, indeed the Germans have equality in destroyers. In the ensuing battle the German heavires hold off the RN heavies and the light forces wreak havoc on the RN light forces causing the GF to make an unmistakable withdrawal allowing the HSF to sink badly damaged GF heavies and win an unmistakable victory by sinking 6 capital ships despite the late arrival of the 30 destroyers from Harwich.

In the aftermath deployments are reversed, the RN redeploys light forces to the GF and the Germans send light forces back to the Channel where they again attempt with some success to cut the supply lines to the BEF. All the work done by the RN in 18 months to gain control of the Channel lost in an afternoon off Jutland. The HSF makes several feints to sea throughout 1916 which keeps light forces deployed with the GF instead of the Channel and Britain stops work on captial ship construction to focus on destroyers.

In late 1917, as Britain again starts to gain ascendency in both the North Sea and Channel Russia and france sign armistances ending the war.
 
Even in this scenario Germany keeps blockaded by the Royal Navy,and that is a game killer for germany.The germans need something to break the blockade.
 
How about if Admiral Hipper gets his dream come true and the High Seas Fleet is able to engage a significant portion of the Grand Fleet with the majority of the Imperial Navy? Let's suppose that it goes in the Germans' favor, with all the British Battlecruisers sunk and a number of Dreadnoughts lost as well. Some minor losses to the HSF, some very serious damage to the Navy - a few units will be out for a year or more for major repairs (a couple will later be declared total losses and scrapped, their crews earmarked for the ersatz Yorcks then building). This, coupled with the French defeat at Verdun and the BEF thrown back in total disarray. Any more ideas?
 
Even in this scenario Germany keeps blockaded by the Royal Navy,and that is a game killer for germany.The germans need something to break the blockade.

The blockade wasn`t fatal for Germany until 1918, when ,coincidentaly, everything else turned to crap as well. With Germany on the far side of Cap Griz Nez the blockade will be a bit looser because much of their attention will be on gaining control of the channel supply route and the anti-blockade route will be a touch easier. That doesn`t mean blockade runners will come and go freely, just that some blockade running will occur.
 

nastle

Banned
The Germans win the race to the sea, giving them bases for light forces on the French Channel coast. German light forces engage in cut and thrust fighting in Channel making gaining control of the Channel the main British war aim. Light forces are gathered from the GF and elsewhere and concentrate in an arc from Harwich to Southhampton and gain ascendency over the German light forces by late 1915.

In late May 1916, under cover of darkenss of 3 night all the available German destroyers and light cruisers based on the channel redeploy home. Then on May 31 the HSF puts to sea, forewarned the GF puts to sea with a preponderance of capital ships, but due to the fighting in the Channel a dearth of destroyers and light cruisers, indeed the Germans have equality in destroyers. In the ensuing battle the German heavires hold off the RN heavies and the light forces wreak havoc on the RN light forces causing the GF to make an unmistakable withdrawal allowing the HSF to sink badly damaged GF heavies and win an unmistakable victory by sinking 6 capital ships despite the late arrival of the 30 destroyers from Harwich.

In the aftermath deployments are reversed, the RN redeploys light forces to the GF and the Germans send light forces back to the Channel where they again attempt with some success to cut the supply lines to the BEF. All the work done by the RN in 18 months to gain control of the Channel lost in an afternoon off Jutland. The HSF makes several feints to sea throughout 1916 which keeps light forces deployed with the GF instead of the Channel and Britain stops work on captial ship construction to focus on destroyers.

In late 1917, as Britain again starts to gain ascendency in both the North Sea and Channel Russia and france sign armistances ending the war.
But how will the german heavies knock out the british heavies ?
brits have a 2 to 1 supoerity in numbers and 13.5-15" guns against germans 11-12"
Furthermore the more prolonged the battle is the more chances that germans would suffer greater attrition
Thirdly RN ships can limp back to friendly ports but what about german ships ? most of the heavily damamged ones would have to be scuttled
remember that even in Jutland a great number of german vessels suffered very heavy damage but were able to get back to port HOWEVER the effective strength of the HSF was seriously depleted right after Jutland
british light forces time and again have proven to be superior to their german counterpart what makes you think that a screen of old destroyers and other light forces ( remember no E-boats in 1916 or the "channel destroyers" M-boats) would keep majority of british forces engaged
 

nastle

Banned
My plan would be this

Try to secure bases in norway in 1914, it would involve maybe 1-2 divisions of army and naval marines but its worth it.The old pre-dreads to transport troops and supplies thru coastal convoys to norway, even if a few are lost its not going to cripple HSF

Keep all Uboast as a outside screen to prevent RN from interfering in the invasion of norway.Which likely wont after losing 4 cruisers in rapid succession as in the OTL

Use the privateers as the main source of commerce raiding.Its economical and frustrating for the british.With bases in norway it would be easier to break the british blockade

More efforts to use fishing fleet for EXTENSIVE mining of the british coast and naval bases.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
This a a hard scenario to come up with. The Germans need either fight the fleet in isolated pieces, or to fight the fleet near German shores where the Germans could use mines, torpedo boats and U-boats much easier. The British new this fact, and moved the main fleet to Scapa Flow.

To beat this the Germans will need to attack something near Germany that the British have to respond to with the main fleet. The only thing that comes to mind is to use a couple of regiments to fake an Invasion of Southeast England and have the High Seas Fleet wait to ambush the British Fleet. This maneuver is extremely high risk, and unlikely to work.

Or, they could Sail the High Seas Fleet to Scapa Flow at the beginning of the war, but this is unlikely to work.

They tried in OTL to bait the fleet by shelling cities near London. This did not work, so it is hard to see how they would be able do draw down the Grand Fleet in terms substantially more favorable than Jutland.
 
But how will the german heavies knock out the british heavies ?
brits have a 2 to 1 supoerity in numbers and 13.5-15" guns against germans 11-12"
Furthermore the more prolonged the battle is the more chances that germans would suffer greater attrition
Thirdly RN ships can limp back to friendly ports but what about german ships ? most of the heavily damamged ones would have to be scuttled
remember that even in Jutland a great number of german vessels suffered very heavy damage but were able to get back to port HOWEVER the effective strength of the HSF was seriously depleted right after Jutland
british light forces time and again have proven to be superior to their german counterpart what makes you think that a screen of old destroyers and other light forces ( remember no E-boats in 1916 or the "channel destroyers" M-boats) would keep majority of british forces engaged

The Germans have better long range gunnery than the British and their systems tend to get hits early, and the Germans have the battle turnaway if things get too tough so they can re-engage on and off to use their ladder firing ranging system. The British had serious problems with the initiative of their light forces in the GF and their scouting was pretty ordinary, the Germans were better in this regard and if numbers were equal this extra skill would equate to tactical advantage.
 

nastle

Banned
The Germans have better long range gunnery than the British and their systems tend to get hits early, and the Germans have the battle turnaway if things get too tough so they can re-engage on and off to use their ladder firing ranging system. The British had serious problems with the initiative of their light forces in the GF and their scouting was pretty ordinary, the Germans were better in this regard and if numbers were equal this extra skill would equate to tactical advantage.
I'm the most germanophillic south asian you would find but I have a hard time believing that HSF would comfortably trounce RN in a big naval engagement. At Jutland they surprised each other and got lucky but as I said even in this brief engagement the HSF suffered mmany ships which so heavily damaged that they were not battleworthy next day.They lost fewer ships and men because of a variety of reasons but if anything it convinced the german admirals that they could not win another engagement like this.
 
During 16th December 1914 a German force of battlecruisers and armoured cruisers under Hipper raided Scarborough, Hartpool and Whitby. Jellicoe sent only his four battlecruisers and the second battle squadron (six SDs) to intercept them. They narrowly missed the HSF which was kept as back up on sea. Now if this force (10 capital ships) had been caught between the two German ones (19 modern capital ships) it could have been an overwhelming victory reducing british superiority significantly and perhaps changing the mind of the Kaiser, who was against bigger action after first Heligoland bight. If the losses are really one sided due to the better armour of the German ships the two fleets are nearly on par for the time being and even a smaller victory would be a good step.
 
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NothingNow

Banned
Engineer a diplomatic incident between the Japanese and Americans, in 1914 or 1915, or hope that one happens. If the US and Japan come to blows (comparatively easy,) The RN is an automatic Japanese ally, and that makes the Americans co-belligerent with the Germans.

Given how massively over-extended the RN would be in such a situation trying to bail out the IJN, contain the USN in the Caribbean and Atlantic, bottle up the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary in the Med, contain the HSF, all while dealing with German commerce raiders and both German and Austro-Hungarian Submarines.

Something'd have to give.
 
In the OTL Battle of Jutland, at one point the entire HSF had managed to engage an isolated portion of the GF: Beatty was pursuing Hipper's battlecruisers with his 6 BCs and 4 Queen Elizabeth fast battleships, and Hipper managed to lead him straight back to the main HSF force. Beatty had allowed his force to get strung out, with the BCs out of signal flag range with the QEs. Each half of Beatty's force managed to escape the trap and lead the HSF back to the main force of the GF, but without the Fleet Battleturn it was a near-run thing, especially for the QEs.

Suppose the weather had been a bit clearer that day, so the Germans could have used zeppelin scouts as planned. One of the zepplins may have been able to bring word of Beatty's approach to the main body of the HSF, which could have deployed to cross Beatty's T and bring all their guns to bear.

Problem is, even though this is the HSF's closest brush with defeating a significant chunk of the GF in detail, it's still not enough. Even if the HSF sunk every single one of Beatty's ships, they'd still be outnumbered 24:16 in BBs, not counting the four British BBs temporarily out of service during Jutland (three in refit, and one brand new BB still being worked up to combat readiness). The HSF would outnumber the GF 5:3 in BCs, but that's nowhere near enough to offset the difference in BBs.
 
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