Jutland WI

I'm not sure they actually had such a squadron; the three Bretagne class, roughly comparable to the British Orions, and the four Courbet class, in the same approximate league as Neptune and her half sisters, are pretty much it for French dreadnoughts, for that war at least; none of the Bretagnes have been in service for very long, they may not be fully worked up, and their armour was iffy even by pre- Jutland standards.

What they do to fleet command and control is the interesting part- as much mud as can be slung at the RN over this, Jellicoe describes the progress in signalling from a flag hoist taking fifteen minutes to be repeated and acknowledged down the length of the battle line, through extensive harbour training, down to less than two. (It was originating signals, like, oh, sighting reports, that the fleet was genuinely, criminally, atrociously bad at.)

How well, or otherwise, does the Marine Nationale handle these things? Are they better at reporting to the Flag- you'd like to think that couldn't be worse, but...

How good is their night fighting? The drawings and photographs don't show much in the way of searchlight capability, I can't find anything about them even having starshell that early- if they prolong the battle line enough that the Germans collide with something solid during the night action, that might make a difference, especially if they were any good at it. Which, playing catch- up and looking for any available advantage, they might have been. Any confirmation on WWI French night abilities and doctrine out there?
 

LordKalvert

Banned
The French really don't have much to give to Jutland. If you want to add to British power it would be better to look to the Italian fleet

Quality is always an issue with fleets but to function in battle together they really would need to drill together for months if not years
 

LordKalvert

Banned
If the French fleet is at Jutland, who's watching the Mediterranean?

You can pull out the French or the Italians but not both. By Jutland, there isn't much of the CP in the Mediterranean. The Goeben but its dealing with the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The considerable Austrian Fleet is easily bottled up in the Adriatic. A few minefields and submarines would do the trick. Would leave the Italian Eastern shore uncovered so some capital ships to deal with an odd raid would be all you would need
 

TinyTartar

Banned
If the French fleet is at Jutland, who's watching the Mediterranean?

The Italians would be, and I assume that the British have some squadrons in the region that could handle blockade duties. The Ottoman Fleet was not a huge threat and the Austrians were thoroughly bottled up.
 
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