Alternate History Challenge: Graf Spee Victorious!

Anaxagoras

Banned
Blucher was a coal hog though, if sent to the far east she'd never leave, Spee had enough issues coaling the twins on their journey across the pacific let alone a fuel hungry semi-battlecruiser. And if the far east got the Blucher you can bet that RN overseas squadrons would be reinforced with more than just reservist vessels.

Staying in Tsingtao is a no no as you'll just be crushed by the Japanese either through bombardment or trying to face down the blockading forces and in the indian ocean you'll run out of coal as there's nowhere safe. The Emden lead a magnificent but short career but she was still basically living hand in mouth in terms of coal.

If they had the Blucher at Tsingtao, von Spee wouldn't have taken her with him. He would have unloaded most of its coal to take with him, then left the Blucher behind to serve as a floating battery during the defense of the city. This also would have had the added benefit of forcing the Japanese to keep some of their more powerful ships near Tsingtao to guard against any unexpected foray by the Blucher, which would help the rest of the squadron get away.
 
Staying in Tsingtao is a no no as you'll just be crushed by the Japanese either through bombardment or trying to face down the blockading forces and in the indian ocean you'll run out of coal as there's nowhere safe. The Emden lead a magnificent but short career but she was still basically living hand in mouth in terms of coal.

IRRC, the only order Graf Spee received after the war started was not to get bottled up in Tsingtao. Otherwise, he had complete freedom in what he did. That's an interesting contrast to Churchill and the Admiralty's disastrous micromanagement of Craddock.
 
The shells fired by the Germans that caused those catastrophic detonations at Jutland were 11 inch shells. The German armored cruisers of von Spee's fleet had 8.2 inch guns. I am not sure they would have had the power to penetrate the British armor even at the weakened point to which you refer. Does anyone know?

In V. E. Tarrant's Battlecruiser Invincible, it mentions that one of the 8.2 hits actually achieved a partial penetration on one of Invincible's barbettes, but did not detonate. Had it detonated, there would be at least a chance of a catastrophic magazine explosion.

Had that happened, it may have clued the RN off that they had a problem on their hands long before Jutland.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
In V. E. Tarrant's Battlecruiser Invincible, it mentions that one of the 8.2 hits actually achieved a partial penetration on one of Invincible's barbettes, but did not detonate. Had it detonated, there would be at least a chance of a catastrophic magazine explosion.

I wonder what would have happened then. Would Inflexible have gotten spooked and broken off the engagement? If not, and assuming the Germans didn't get another lucky hit, I think Inflexible would have been sufficiently powerful to sink both German armored cruisers.

Had that happened, it may have clued the RN off that they had a problem on their hands long before Jutland.

And what an interesting POD that would be!
 
The Canopus had serious engine issues, her cheif engineer had had a nervous breakdown and was afraid of stressing the old girls engines when she could have gone faster than he thought she could.

The weather in the Battle of the Falklands was a rarity. It was startlingly clear and calm and even if the Canopus was not present the RN would not drink from the lead paint and not bother with anything like lookouts of have ships with steam up to go. The RN had the Kent with steam up and she could have left, she would have died but her sacrifice would buy enough time for the BCs and other vessels in harbour to get up steam and move.

Would Kent have been enough? I'm very skeptical. With typical Falkland visibility, even with lookouts the British aren't going to have much warning, and they're in the middle of coaling, not just docked. It'll take the battlecruisers hours to get moving. A light cruiser is not going to be able to keep Scharnhorst and Gneisenau out that long. Defence probably could, but not Kent.

And even if Von Spee is blown out of the water at Port Stanley, if he takes just one battlecruiser with him (and with torpedoes at point-blank range he would, assuming he gets that far), it'd be worth it. Von Spee would be a hero and a martyr to the German navy and people, a man who went down guns blazing and took some of the enemy's best ships with him. He really can't do better than that.
 
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