Revised Great War at Sea

Heavy shell hits on British CA's

HMS Defense: est. 7
HMS Warrior 15
HMS Black Prince est. 12

Anything I have found regarding the British AC's was that they were closing on the Weisbaden when they were taken under fire by units of the HSF at ranges no more than 12,000 yards. The visibility was no more than that at that particular time and place in the battle.

The general thought is that Arbuthnot felt he had an isolated cruiser to finish off and wasn't counting on the timely appearance of the HSF's heavy units.

... and very nice to hear from you, Devolved. I'm looking forward to seeing some more posts on your excellent timeline!
 
... and Shar, as always I appreciate your insights .... and it would be great fun to see where your Franco-Japanese timeline will go to next!
 

sharlin

Banned
well i've a few ideas rattling around in my noggin but i'm just at the case of putting them on paper (word) and going 'hmm....nope..I don't like it!'

Also an intersting thing about the Defence. Her wreck was found and it seems she didn't actually blow up and get utterly destroyed as writing about her suggests. Whilst her magazines went up for sure, the ship was not annihilated, but she sank upright and is in fairly good condition.The blasts destroyed her bow and stern and she just dropped like a stone, sinking within seconds which no one could survive.
 
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well i've a few ideas rattling around in my noggin but i'm just at the case of putting them on paper (word) and going 'hmm....nope..I don't like it!'

Also an intersting thing about the Defence. Her wreck was found and it seems she didn't actually blow up and get utterly destroyed as writing about her suggests. Whilst her magazines went up for sure, the ship was not annihilated, but she sank upright and is in fairly good condition.The blasts destroyed her bow and stern and she just dropped like a stone, sinking within seconds which no one could survive.

Aye the Armoured Cruisers actually managed to take sever punishment before they sank. When we think of Ships blowning up we think of Hood, and the Queen Mary etc. But in reality the ships remained intact following the magazine explosions especially QM (Invincible was blown in two we know this and Indy was salvaged badly in the past) Hood was torn to bits like Titanic when she went down due to trapped air etc.

Also nice work on Franco-Japanese War Sharlin, i look forward to the future too.
 

sharlin

Banned
All the ACs that were shot at in WWI generally took a severe pounding despite being obsolete. The Good Hope and Kent were hammered to buggery by Von Spee and the Scharnhorst and Gnisenau were mauled by the British Battlecruisers at the battle of the Falklands. The Blucher was battered by gunfire and torpedoes before giving up the ghost and sinking, and at Jutland the RN's ACs took as many hits as Von Spees ships did all be it in a far shorter time period.

And thank ye for the comments about the Franco-Japanese war, i'm glad its not been forgotten :)
 
Just got back up to date after some a few weeks away from the site.

What a punch up! I suppose an engagement in such an area has the qualities of a knife fight in a phone box, so there were always going to be casualties.

In the short term, the Germans may actually benefit the most here. The AH fleet is destroyed, and the MN gutted. Unless Italy declares for the Entente, extra RN assets will have to be moved, at least until the MN can make up some of it's losses. This could leave the RN short in the North Sea. Longer term, it depends if the MN and RN can learn lessons from this. Not just any lessons though, as only the correct ones will do, and some of the results of this battle could lead to the wrong conclusions being drawn.

Craddock's decision to reroute the convoy will cause a lovely diplomatic mess. He could manage to piss off the French, Italians, Serbia and Montenegro, and the Balkan League. This may be mitigated, or worsened by some of the above pissing off each other due to their response to the situation...

Oh, and BUMP! Looking forward to more. :cool:
 
The Great War at Sea (Revised)

Book 1
1914 -The Mediterranean
5d. The Battle off Kimovica - aftermath and repercussions


In the immediate aftermath of the battle off Kimovica the Adriatic settled down for a few weeks for the simple reason that there were no combatants on either side ready or able to realistically contest control of the Adriatic basin.

Of more importance was the near paranoid response of the opponents to the possibility of not only mines, but ambush by submersibles as well. As a result of this level of thought on the matter the Adriatic would become nearly devoid of shipping other than Italian coastal convoys as the great powers were loath to carelessly commit any more shipping of any sort to what had apparently become deadly waters.

Both sides had their spin on the situation which they could attempt to use too their benefit. The Austrians were stating that they had denied the Adriatic to the Entente, so by that they were claiming victory even in the face of the heavy losses their fleet sustained.

The French in turn were announcing rather loudly that they had broke the back of Austrian naval might in the Mediterranean, with some help from their British allies of course. They would go on to say that the Austrian fleet had been reduced to a mere coast defence force incapable of operating in the southern Adriatic. As a result, the French were claiming victory.

But while they would argue on for many years, but for an unbiased outsider to draw any conclusions they would lean toward a draw based on the heavy losses suffered for no real gain. The Austrians would say that they in fact did win as the French were denied their opportunity to move supplies through Budya to the Serbs, after the RN flatly refused to risk heavy warships in such waters again until countermeasures might be deduced and deployed. And as The RN would be the primary supplier of dreadnought battleships for the foreseeable future, the lack of interest in supporting the Budya option was clear.

But while the Austrian’s could with some truth claim a tactical victory, it was a pyrrhic one. For the end result was that without a major building program and enough years to bring it all to fruition, the Austrian fleet had been very much reduced in hitting power and threat.

While the argument was never really settled and arm chair historians to this day still argue the merits of one side over the other, what is missed by many is who really won the battle in a strategic sense, and that was the Balkan League. For as soon as Craddock suggested diverting the second convoy to Vlore in an effort to save it from the guns of the Austrian fleet, the Entente had lost it’s ability to support the Serbs directly.

When the ships had arrived at Vlore a furious exchange of diplomatic traffic was exchanged among the various nations. The Central Powers wanted the ships interned, the French wanted them released to continue to Budya in the days following the battle. At the same time the French were protesting loudly to their British allies over Craddock’s ‘insane’ order that the convoy divert to Vlore.

The British countered by saying it was not an order, rather it was a recommendation that proved to be quite ‘sane’ given the situation and knowledge at the time. There was grumblings in some quarters of the French camp that portrayed the English as conspiring with the League to move Serbia into their sphere, but this position was not widely held.

With the Central Powers applying pressure to have the ships and cargo interned the League quietly approached the British with a plan. To forestall what was fast turning into a situation where the League would be forced to choose a side, The League would simply ‘purchase’ the supplies and equipment in question. They would then funnel it through to the Serbs as deemed necessary. As the merchant ships in question were simply unloading their cargo which now belonged to the League, there was no need to intern the vessels.

The British felt that this was a very workable solution, for they were beginning to see the advantage of having the Serbs move into the League’s sway. The British agreed to present the offer to the French as long as the League would commit to keeping Serbia in the war.

The League responded by saying they had no desire to see the Austro-Hungarians extend their reach any farther south than they already were. At the same time the League expressed their concern over the increase in German material which was being shipped to Turkey via Romania.

As the talks moved on into the first week of December, the Austrian army’s advance into Serbia had been brought to a halt. Then after a weak point had been discovered the Serbs had counter-attacked successfully and thrown the Austrians back in confusion, by the 9th, The Serbian Army had retaken Belgrade and by mid month the front line was back on the pre-war frontier for all intents and purposes. The Serb’s had managed this shoe string operation on the small trickle of supplies which had been arriving from various sources. Now they were demanding that their allies do what ever it takes to further expedite the needed victuals to hold the line.

Timely intelligence provided by the League (which would later prove to be not quite truthful) reported on a large Central Powers build up to settle the Serbian issue once and for all. With Winter settling into the Central Balkans the Serb’s were adamant that a solution be found quickly or else they wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the re-supply in a prudent manner.

The League played their hand exceedingly well, and with the British empathetic to the League’s position, the French came to the understanding that the only way this would work would be under League auspices, and they reluctantly agreed.

With the ships unloading at Vlore and more assistance on the way, The League began to once again pressure the Serbs to fall into step with their plans. The Serbs were told that once the issue of control over Macedonia was settled, the free movement of all needed supplies to Serbia would commence.

When the Serbs asked about the future of Macedonia the response from the League was unusual. The League stated that the constant struggle between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia over who rightfully should control Macedonia had no practical and fair solution in any of the current guises. If it was to continue in its current form, there could be no rapprochement between the League and Serbia.

There fore the League’s proposal was based on Macedonia becoming a self governing territory directly under the protection of the joint council with all members of the League which would include Serbia when she joined. Bulgaria would hold the chair until such time that the Macedonians were felt to be capable of administering themselves as a full fledged member of the League. The period of Bulgarian led League supervision was stated as not to be more than five years after the end of hostilities.

The Serbs were aghast at the proposal initially, particularly that the Greeks were in favor of it. But as both the Bulgarians and the Greeks were apparently ready to part with portions of Macedonia that they held to be included in the new state somewhat assuaged the Serbians. The League further stated that the new Macedonian state would remain an active Serbian ally in its fight with the Central Powers under the condition that any Macedonian personnel would be constituted in wholly national units.

At the same time the League also entered into private discussions with the Montenegrins to guarantee their current frontiers against outside aggressors. The League would assist in ending hostilities in the region with the understanding that the pre-war geographical boundaries of both Serbia and Montenegro with the Central Powers were considered inviolate.

The Serbs were nonplussed in the first instance, but quickly came to see that their only hope of survival in the current situation was to accept what had been presented by the League, while the Montenegrins were even quicker to express their concurrence with the proposal.

The Serbians requested that if they were to accept the proposal the League must immediately move to begin talks with the Central Powers to end hostilities with Serbia and Montenegro, and a guarantee of military support if the Central Powers insisted on continuing hostilities. As well, the Serbs demanded an immediate and large draft of supplies and equipment to reconstitute their battered armies.

By the 20th of December the initial accord had been hammered out and supplies were beginning to make there way to Serbia. At the same time formal contact for an armistice between Serbia and Montenegro and the Central powers was presented by the League through diplomatic channels.

While the League had been pushing through their proposal however, the Central powers had not been unaware of what was taking place. The Austrians in particular were livid at these Balkan upstarts that were trying to set up shop in their traditional back yard. As a result they immediately began to pressure their German allies for a resolute and strong military response as the honour of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was at stake.

The Austrians demanded a combined offensive into Serbia as well as Bulgaria and Montenegro as soon as practically possible. While the Germans were mulling over the options, the first diplomatic inquiries from the League arrived, but as the Austrians were in no mood to parley these were swiftly and rudely rebuffed.

The opinion of the Austrians was further reinforced by a rather lacklustre offensive which was launched into Montenegro in the last days of December. The so called Christmas Offensive was quickly brought to a halt and thrown back by the Montenegrins who were backed by the French colonial troops which had arrived at Budya earlier in the month.

As the offensive slowly degenerated into a bloody slugfest, both sides began to pour in more troops and resources, and as the Montenegrins and their sturdy colonial French allies did their collective best to hold off the ever increasing Central Powers forces the Serbs began to filter in troops as well.

Finally on the 30th of December the Austrians suspended their operations and fell back toward their frontier with the Franco-Montenegrins cautiously following them.

While territorially speaking, there were no big changes to be seen in the Mediterranean, from the political chair it was a vastly different view than just a few months before.

On land the Central Powers and the Entente were staring each other down along the southern Balkan boundaries of the Austro-Hungarian frontier. The actual dynamic of the fight there was changing fast, as with the Serbs relying more and more on the Balkan League, the ability of the Entente to directly influence actions there was fast diminishing.

The Austrians might have been able to take advantage of the situation in a perfect world, but sadly for them that world was nowhere in sight. The Austrians had paid dearly in both men ad materiel in their effort to subdue the Serbians and extend their influence deeper into the Balkans, and had gained nothing for their efforts.

The Austrians would have been wise to treat with the League, but the pride of the Empire had been greatly insulted and their were strong feelings in Vienna that a concerted effort must be made to destroy the Serbian resistance and save the honour of the Empire.

But realistically the Austrians would need substantial assistance from Germany if any sort of offensive on the scale foreseen was to be carried through to a successful completion. The Austrian Army’s morale had fallen and her badly battered troops were in need of supplies and replacements before any further offensive action was to be undertaken.

This was not the last of the Austrian concerns, for as the Balkan League grew stronger, so did Bosnian nationalistic opinion. The Bosnians were no blind to the fact that their independent neighbours to the south and east had rebuffed the Empire’s efforts to expand its hold on the region. While at this point the Bosnians were nowhere close to directly influencing the situation at hand, very discrete contact was beginning to be organized with the League.

The Germans in turn were not initially happy with the situation at hand, knowing full well that the troops and provisions that would have to be sent to bolster their ally would be put to much greater usage on the Eastern and Western Fronts. But the Germans were also aware of the fact that they needed Austria in the fight, and there were few options other than to agree to support the Austrians in their efforts in the Balkans.

But in their typical intelligent and efficient manner, the German General staff began to see advantages that could be brought into play. The Germans knew that any offensive action against the Serbs could not be carried out without consideration for how the Balkan League would respond to it.

Diplomatic queries very quickly disclosed that the League was non negotiable on its position on Serbia. The Germans outwardly stated that they had no quarrel with the League and outwardly let on that they had no real interest in seeing the fighting expand further into the Balkans, and even hinted at possibly being interested in working with the League to broker an agreement between the Austrians and Serbia.

But in private the Germans had other plans. So while at first it appeared that there might be a chance of a settlement, The German General Staff and diplomatic corps was hard at work on a multi-facetted plan to turn this seemingly disadvantageous situation to one with a successful ending for the Central Powers.

The League in the mean time was cautiously optimistic, having for the most part taken the Germans at face value on the current situation. There was an undercurrent of vainglory in their thinking which was beginning to muddle their diplomatic process by the end of the year, For they had first not only successfully pulled their fledgling organization together, but had followed that up by then standing off the Entente, forcing back the Italians and now apparently gaining the ear of the Central Powers as well.

In the League’s eyes it was becoming apparent that the dream of a truly independent Balkans was well on its way to reality, but sadly for them events in the new year would arise to challenge that thought and test the League severely.

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The Turks in turn were once again beginning to stir, as Envers Pasha and his cohorts took advantage of the sudden rise of the Balkan League to once more take control of the nation. A steadily increasing stream of supplies and advisors from Germany had been making its way into the country via shipping on the Black Sea from Romanian ports.

The Entente was becoming more aware of this traffic, but was loathe to interdict it as long as seaborne trade with between Russia and her western allies continued to move through the Dardanelles. There was a growing series of diplomatic efforts by both the Entente and Central Powers, but as the general mood in Turkey was that the Entente was moving in lock step with the Balkan League, the Entente diplomatic effort was by the end of the year faltering badly.

Germany took full advantage of this and played to the Turks fears regarding the ambitions of the Balkan League. As a result the Turks, with Envers Pasha at the helm once more in all but actual title, were once more falling into the Central Powers grip, and in the various capitols of Europe the question which was causing the most thought for the region was not if the war would spread to Asia Minor, but when.

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The Italians were the other target of the diplomatic arms of the belligerents as both sides did their level best to draw the Italians into their respective spheres. For while the Italian army might not be arguably up to continental standards, as a result of the sea battles in the Adriatic her fleet was now potentially the strongest naval force in the Mediterranean.

But while the basic numbers were impressive, the logistics of the fleet hamstrung potential operations as Italian coal stocks were low, and what was available to them came for the most part via the good graces of the Entente and in particular Great Britain, and with no positive Italian decision forthcoming at this point, that supply had been seriously curtailed.

As to potential national gains from choosing which way to sway, their were several choices as well. To side with the Central Powers could well mean further expansion of the Italian sphere in Africa. But against that option stood the desires of the Irredentist lobby which had their eyes on ethnically Italian territory and other territories along the Adriatic now belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Even with the nationalist affront revolving around being ungraciously forced from Albania, The Irredentists were gaining ground, and while at the end of the year the issue of which side the Italians might join, if any, it was becoming apparent to more than a few that Italy was beginning to favour the Entente.
 
This will end off Mediterranean operations for now and the next Book will deal with The Pacific and Indian Oceans.

After that will come Atlantic operations as well as events in the Baltic and North Sea up to the end of 1914.

sorry for the delay in getting this out .. more should be following soon
 
Very good once again, Perky. Highly unusual agreement in Macedonia. Can't help thinking that the Serb and Bulgarian people will be aghast at the idea myself.

If Germany can synchronise a big thrust by AH (possibly bolstered by themselves), an Ottoman attack and even possibly a Romanian intervention, the Balkan League will be sorely pressed...

I look forward to tales from other parts of the globe!
 
hi Geordie,

the soft underbelly is going to give everyone a massive case of indigestion ... including the local yokels .... I just wanted to stir the pot in a bit different manner. It may appear somewhat wonky at this point, but things will sort out somewhat in 1915.

I'm just doing the final organizational bits on distant seas at this point, so updates should start appearing shortly.... I had to do a bit of re-writing to set things up properly for the coming year (1915) ... let's just say it will be afflicted with that old Chinese curse .... "May you live in interesting times" ...
 
The Great War at Sea (Revised)

Book 1
1914 - The Trade Routes
1. War on the High Seas - an introduction

In July of 1914, with the threat of hostilities looming, First Sea Lord Battenburg began to make preparations for extending the service of reservists called up for the fleet’s summer manoeuvres, and at the same time took several other steps to better prepare the Royal Navy for what seemed to be imminent war.

One of the steps was to begin the requisitioning process for various merchant liners, which would serve as Auxiliary Merchant Cruisers for the navy in the event of war. While these vessels were unsuited for anything resembling a general fleet action, they were well suited for patrolling the sea lanes and covering distant back waters. By commencement of hostilities a good number of these vessels were in service not only with the Royal Navy, but with various other navies of the world as well.

As the navies of the Entente were, with localized exceptions, the masters of the world’s oceans, the bulk of these AMC’s were to be used as patrol or escort vessels. These ships and their stalwart crews would provide yeoman service for the duration of the war, and when called upon to do so they would fight with skill and spirit, and in some cases die bravely fulfilling their duties.

For the most part however, with the policy of distant blockade further reinforced by the shocking losses to mines and submersibles in the Adriatic, the AMC’s would spend their war service on distant patrol lines maintaining the ever tightening chokehold on the Central Powers’ seaborne trade.

Germany made use of Auxiliary cruisers as well, however their deployment and actual usage was of a more offensive bent. With their lack of secure distant ports, and the unfavourable disparity in numbers of ships, the Germans were unable to offer up a traditional means of interdicting Entente merchant shipping. Their only heavy units on Foreign Service were the battle Cruiser Goeben with a light cruiser in the Mediterranean, and Admiral Spee’s two armoured cruisers with an assortment of light cruisers and auxiliaries in the Western Pacific. There was a further smattering of cruisers scattered from both coasts of North America to German East Africa.

In the opening days of the war the inability of these ships to properly provide any sort of action capable of hampering the Entente’s merchant marine trade was initially shown. The Goeben and her consort Breslau were brought to bay and disposed of in the Mediterranean, while von Spee’s force was on the run in the Pacific, being pursued by the much larger and more powerful Entente fleet assets there. The other cruisers operating independently had some early successes but no where near the level needed to inflict serious damage on the supplies moving to Entente ports.

But while the initial lack of success in sinking Entente merchant shipping was somewhat disheartening, these various warships did have an important impact on the Entente, as great effort in ships and material was expended in hunting them down, as well as the general disruption in shipping schedules and routing.

Closer to their home ports, the Central Powers made good use of their U-boats, mine layers and lighter warships to interdict Entente efforts to use merchant shipping to their benefit. The shocking impact of mines and submarines in the Adriatic would raise the concerns of both sides, and would lead to strong efforts, particularly by the French, to provide counter measures for these new underwater perils.

For distant interdiction the Germans turned to auxiliary cruisers of their own. These vessels ranged from extemporized vessels equipped and armed in a haphazard manner in quiet anchorages around the globe, to powerful and well thought out vessels fitted out in German ports. This was backed up by a system of supply ships purposefully placed at sea before the war started as well as Central Powers vessels which found themselves in distant neutral ports at that time.

The German diplomatic corps and her naval attaches around the globe were to prove very adept at provisioning and supporting the scattered warships of the High seas Fleet for the bulk of the war’s duration. For even as the heavier units were to be tracked down and neutralized, Germany did her level best to not only maintain a surface presence on the High Seas, but to assist the U-boats as they ranged further from home waters.

It was against the efforts of the German Auxiliary Cruisers that the Armed Merchant Cruisers of the Entente and in particular the Royal Navy would show their worth. For while their actual rate of ship on ship encounters were not high, The RN’s auxiliary Merchant Cruisers would prove to be instrumental in denying the high seas to German shipping.
 
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