March 11th, 1917
General Staff Headquarters
Berlin
Smoke lies heavy in the stuffy room as the most important men in the Kaiserreich crowd around the table. Overall, the men wear the heavily decorated field-gray uniforms of the army high command. Most of them do, at least, as there is one notable in the three men in the dark blue naval uniforms. There is a cough, but other than that, no one dares interrupt the man at the head of the table as he stands and begins to speak. Working over a map of France with a pointer, he begins to outline the plan that the rest of the men are desperately waiting to hear.
"Here, at the hinge of the British and French armies, is Saint-Quentin," he stabs at a black dot on the map, "where their overall control of the battlefield is weakest. This is the objective of Michael. Once we split their armies, we will wheel north and cut off the British. It is at this time when Georgette will commence, driving through the gap and wheeling south to mop up the French." He makes a sweeping motion to the south. "It is imperative that we maintain offensive momentum throughout this entire operation. Finally, in conjunction with our final drive towards Paris, Operation Odyssey will begin." With this, he flips the map of France over, revealing a chart of the North Sea and the English Channel. The man in the naval uniform then stands and takes the pointer from the army officer. He begins to speak.
"Operation Odyssey involves the entirety of our surface fleet, which will assemble here," he stabs at Helgoland, "and sail, hugging the coast." He draws the pointer along the Dutch and Belgian coasts. "It will begin with the diversionary group of three of our old battleships, led by Admiral von Reuter," one of the men in naval uniform raises his hand to identify himself, "with attached light screening forces going ahead of the main fleet to draw off elements of the Grand Fleet. We will ensure this by flooding the lines with discussions of this plan, dubbed Odyssey 1. Odyssey 2 will begin once it is clear that the Grand fleet is split. The main elements of the High Seas Fleet, led by admiral von Hipper," the other man raises his hand, "will approach whatever divided element of their fleet is unengaged and defeat them in detail. What this operation does require, however, is that we continue construction on our new capital ships and sacrifice the U-Boat construction. For this, I ask permission of the Kaiser. Are there any questions?"
No one speaks up. The plan is ambitious, but if it succeeds, it will give the Germans a fighting chance at ending the war before the Americans arrive in force. As the meeting is dismissed and the room clears, orders begin to be drafted up. While there is still much more detail to go over and kinks to work out, the plans are generally sound. The gears of battle begin to grind back into action.
General Staff Headquarters
Berlin
Smoke lies heavy in the stuffy room as the most important men in the Kaiserreich crowd around the table. Overall, the men wear the heavily decorated field-gray uniforms of the army high command. Most of them do, at least, as there is one notable in the three men in the dark blue naval uniforms. There is a cough, but other than that, no one dares interrupt the man at the head of the table as he stands and begins to speak. Working over a map of France with a pointer, he begins to outline the plan that the rest of the men are desperately waiting to hear.
"Here, at the hinge of the British and French armies, is Saint-Quentin," he stabs at a black dot on the map, "where their overall control of the battlefield is weakest. This is the objective of Michael. Once we split their armies, we will wheel north and cut off the British. It is at this time when Georgette will commence, driving through the gap and wheeling south to mop up the French." He makes a sweeping motion to the south. "It is imperative that we maintain offensive momentum throughout this entire operation. Finally, in conjunction with our final drive towards Paris, Operation Odyssey will begin." With this, he flips the map of France over, revealing a chart of the North Sea and the English Channel. The man in the naval uniform then stands and takes the pointer from the army officer. He begins to speak.
"Operation Odyssey involves the entirety of our surface fleet, which will assemble here," he stabs at Helgoland, "and sail, hugging the coast." He draws the pointer along the Dutch and Belgian coasts. "It will begin with the diversionary group of three of our old battleships, led by Admiral von Reuter," one of the men in naval uniform raises his hand to identify himself, "with attached light screening forces going ahead of the main fleet to draw off elements of the Grand Fleet. We will ensure this by flooding the lines with discussions of this plan, dubbed Odyssey 1. Odyssey 2 will begin once it is clear that the Grand fleet is split. The main elements of the High Seas Fleet, led by admiral von Hipper," the other man raises his hand, "will approach whatever divided element of their fleet is unengaged and defeat them in detail. What this operation does require, however, is that we continue construction on our new capital ships and sacrifice the U-Boat construction. For this, I ask permission of the Kaiser. Are there any questions?"
No one speaks up. The plan is ambitious, but if it succeeds, it will give the Germans a fighting chance at ending the war before the Americans arrive in force. As the meeting is dismissed and the room clears, orders begin to be drafted up. While there is still much more detail to go over and kinks to work out, the plans are generally sound. The gears of battle begin to grind back into action.
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