Marne without Moltke v.2.0

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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The most important function of the navy, once it became clear that it didn´t make them a valuable ally for the British (a stupid idea to try finding friends by making yourself a danger to them) was preventing a close blockade, something they did well. Otherwise they planned to defeat the Royal Navy in detail, by catching small parts of the fleet with overwhelming superiority. At a few occasions early on they even had a chance to succeed, like the Scarborough raid but the orders of the Kaiser, who wanted to protect his toys, and the caution of their admirals, especially Ingenohl (in Hippers and perhaps Scheers case I suspect they would have been more aggressive without the strict orders) prevented them from using the chances they had.
Mind you except of a Scarborough with too aggressive Warrender and Beatty (certainly possible) none of these few chances would have changed much on its own.
As to navy-army coordination: it ranged between a bit (I vaguely remember a discussion between Hipper and Falkenhayn, when he took the OHL, but it did have no results) and none at all.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Yes, but there were conflicting concepts. The Navy didn't think the British would mobilize so quickly and deploy to France so soon, so missed their planned shot to sink the BEF before it arrived to battle.

After that and a few mishaps...the Kaiser got involved and naval planning vacillated between a few different strategies, which means nothing got done. There are similarities between the conduct of the navy throughout WW1 and the Luftwaffe in the battle of Britain; they kept changing objectives and strategies ultimately ensuring nothing got done.

So they planned to sail into the channel, sink the transports, and return to Germany before the Royal Navy traps them in the channel? Was this even practical?
 

Deleted member 1487

So they planned to sail into the channel, sink the transports, and return to Germany before the Royal Navy traps them in the channel? Was this even practical?

They were planning on trapping whatever British ships from the fleet were in the Channel with their light units and Battlecruisers. Hopefully this would bait the Grand Fleet into the area where their mobility would be compromised and the Germans could have an advantage. This was planned without knowing of British code breaking efforts and a number of other faulty assumptions. At this point I think the British fleet was at Scapa and was eqidistant if not farther from the Channel than the Germans.
 

JAG88

Banned
Nice work! It has been a while but it had to be said.

A couple ideas if you ever return to this project:

You have put the Germans within 30Km of Paris, and ordinary railgun cant reach it as you stated but, if you use one of the 38cm guns that were being completed (or one of the test guns even) for the new Bayern class BBs from a high-angle fixed emplacement, akin to those used in coastal batteries, then you can get a heavy shell all the way to Paris. See here:

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_15-45_skc13.htm

I doubt the special shells were available back then, but with the opportunity dangling before them I think it is very likely one could be quickly developed, it is just a larger windscreen on a lighter shell after all.

942970


How long until the French become desperate with Paris under bombardment? Do they launch a hasty attack? Do they prepare a massive assault with all the artillery they can muster? Or do they simply resort to counter battery fire with whatever large guns they can improvise and attempt to knock out the gun?

Do the French surrender if the Germans knock down the Eifel tower? :D

(Doubt it)
 
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JAG88

Banned
Another likely change would be the death of the KM ships not yet laid down. That means the 7 Mackensens and the fourth Bayern are cancelled, the resources shifted to the much needed Uboats and DDs, their artillery to be used as coastal and rail guns. The same with the reserve ships, too weak to be of combat value they are immediately hulked, their artillery sent to defend the French coast and their crews prepared to man the extra Uboats and DDs required by the TL. This entails the death of all ACs and the pre-dreads other than the Deutschlands and Bs, at least for a while.

With Willy still worried about his toys I doubt the HSF itself would do anything different, maybe sent a dozen of its older DDs plus TBs, with the bulk of their DDs sent only after Dogger Bank, once the Kaiser forbids further risks and the light forces are left without much of a role. The good news are the most modern DDs could carry 24 mines each, so the channel would soon become a very dangerous area for allied shipping disrupting the BEF's supplies, France's imports and causing panic in England. Those DDs would be in constant combat with entente warships so the up gunning to 10,5m would likely occur earlier than IOTL.

A 4x38cm coastal battery near EU would be a must, that way Dieppe is rendered unusable, with a similar one in Cap Gris Nez so the Brits dont feel ignored.
 

Deleted member 1487

Don't fear I haven't given up, I'm just not ready to restart it ATM. I will let you know when I'm ready.
 

trajen777

Banned
Hello wiking --- reread this the other day -- always loved it -- any chance :D:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: of starting it up again -- well thought out and organized
 
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