Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz
Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz
What's the point of having a navy if you never use it?
Those words were in my opinion what led to the great war, 12 words that showed that the Kaiser simply did not understand anything about war. The following ones were, "This will all be over by Christmas."
The aim of the war was to make Cuba a German colony, and the original plan was crafted in 1898, the idea was a great German fleet would sail across the atlantic defeat the American navy in a decisive battle attack Norfolk and then blockade the American's a german diplomat would arrive with our demands and we would emerge victorious from the conflict.
It was pure wishful thinking and we were able to successfully convince the Kaiser that the plan wouldn't be prudent because we simply put did not have enough ships to make the plan work. So then the second plan was hatched, a two pronged invasion of Boston and New York city. The plan called for 60 warships, at least 60 cargo ships, 75,000 tons of coal and a hundred thousand troops. I dismissed it at first and just hoped the Kaiser would develop another fancy as he often did we all thought it was a done topic by 1900. We were wrong.
The Kaiser looked at the Russo-Japanese war and concluded that a surprise attack could easily cow the American's and that their lack of military preparedness would mean an easy victory. At the time Germany was in the mists of a massive naval building spree with us spending 60% of the nations budget on the military. There were plans to scrap the older ships to make way for the new ones. This is when the Kaiser let us know of his plan.
We would take the older ships, sail them to north America and attack Boston and New York in a sneak attack.
When I asked him how we would supply our troops with supplies he simply stated they would live off the land, he thought the American's had a weak will and that their leadership would capitulate to us utterly once a proper show of force and german might had been made. So in 1907 we send out 5 wittlesbach class battleships crusiers, transport ships, the entire invasion fleet ended up being half of the warships that were initially called for and half cargo ships to hold the troops, who numbered less then the 100,00 men the plan required, how much fewer? 50,000 men.
The element of surprise, lack of preparation, the weakness of the American government would be more then enough to get them to fold with in months, demands grew as the plan was hatched going from just Cuba, to the entire east coast of the united states, we convinced him to settle for just demanding Florida. So we set sail in the dead of night determined to finish the war quickly, after all how much fight did this Theodore Roosevelt have in him?
What's the point of having a navy if you never use it?
Those words were in my opinion what led to the great war, 12 words that showed that the Kaiser simply did not understand anything about war. The following ones were, "This will all be over by Christmas."
The aim of the war was to make Cuba a German colony, and the original plan was crafted in 1898, the idea was a great German fleet would sail across the atlantic defeat the American navy in a decisive battle attack Norfolk and then blockade the American's a german diplomat would arrive with our demands and we would emerge victorious from the conflict.
It was pure wishful thinking and we were able to successfully convince the Kaiser that the plan wouldn't be prudent because we simply put did not have enough ships to make the plan work. So then the second plan was hatched, a two pronged invasion of Boston and New York city. The plan called for 60 warships, at least 60 cargo ships, 75,000 tons of coal and a hundred thousand troops. I dismissed it at first and just hoped the Kaiser would develop another fancy as he often did we all thought it was a done topic by 1900. We were wrong.
The Kaiser looked at the Russo-Japanese war and concluded that a surprise attack could easily cow the American's and that their lack of military preparedness would mean an easy victory. At the time Germany was in the mists of a massive naval building spree with us spending 60% of the nations budget on the military. There were plans to scrap the older ships to make way for the new ones. This is when the Kaiser let us know of his plan.
We would take the older ships, sail them to north America and attack Boston and New York in a sneak attack.
When I asked him how we would supply our troops with supplies he simply stated they would live off the land, he thought the American's had a weak will and that their leadership would capitulate to us utterly once a proper show of force and german might had been made. So in 1907 we send out 5 wittlesbach class battleships crusiers, transport ships, the entire invasion fleet ended up being half of the warships that were initially called for and half cargo ships to hold the troops, who numbered less then the 100,00 men the plan required, how much fewer? 50,000 men.
The element of surprise, lack of preparation, the weakness of the American government would be more then enough to get them to fold with in months, demands grew as the plan was hatched going from just Cuba, to the entire east coast of the united states, we convinced him to settle for just demanding Florida. So we set sail in the dead of night determined to finish the war quickly, after all how much fight did this Theodore Roosevelt have in him?
