Jesus thats gonna be one HELL of a fight if the KuK comes out to play. Although the MN didn't get many chances to prove itself in WW1 or WW2 their ships, whilst not the best were not bad vessels. The Danton's forming the 2nd Squadron of the Line are probably some of the better Pre-Dreadnoughts out there and all are all very modern having been completed between 1907 - 1911 (it was this large class of ships, another French habit, that delayed the construction of the Courbet class Dreadnoughts as they took up all the slips the French had for large ships). As the KuK is down a Dreadnought they are going to have to bring along their Pre-dreads, the vast majority of which are armed with 9.2-inch guns which will have to come close to do any real damage and that would bring them in range of the 9.4's on the Danton's flanks.
The MN, thanks to the Jeunne Ecole had a very good cadre of Cruiser and destroyer commanders whom by now would probably have moved onto senior positions or be in command of the larger vessels like the armoured cruisers and the French did build some potent ACR's namely the Edgar Quinet and Ernst Renan classes both of which are present here, and the MN had a love affair with the torpedo boat and destroyer and knew how to use them and they are present in large numbers here.
Really the KuK is in damned if you do, damned if you don't position. Against this large French force they simply don't have the numbers to prevail. The KuK lacked for light cruisers and they don't really have any truck fighting a French armoured cruiser (who also lacked light cruisers but spammed armoured cruisers to work in their stead) and there's not enough torpedo boats and destroyers to counter the French ships. The KuK had 25 DD/Torpedo boats at the start of the war, period. Here the French have 24 of their own.
To sail against this force is to risk being hemmed in and caught by the hammer and anvil which Admiral du Fournet is clearly aiming to do, pin the KuK sortie against his Danton's and crush them with his Dreadnoughts and the British Battlecruisers as well as his Armoured cruisers. The Danton's were tough ships, so just because the KuK will initially have a gunfire advantage with its Dreadnoughts, this is only at long range, and long range gunnery isn't going to win this battle. Its almost certinally bound to devolve into a brawl if the KuK Admiral is willing to and has been ordered, to press the matter and drive off the battleships supporting the troops ashore.
The area the French are lacking is scouting forces, their Protected cruisers are as fast as their dreadnoughts, and most of those ships are very old and are probably old enough that their commanders wouldn't really want to risk a full power run on their engines unless needed. Even the Chateaurenault, the fastest ship the French had of her type has her problems that will be related to her age and her engine type which were absolute fuckers to clean out (and oddly enough were a very early iteration of Small tube boilers, which helps explain why in the late 1800's they could get this ship moving at 24 knots!).
But if the ships in port sortee, then its a massacre, 1 Pre-dread, a hanful of coast defence ships, and some small vessels could be dealt with by the Danton's without the need of the Dreadnoughts.
The MN, thanks to the Jeunne Ecole had a very good cadre of Cruiser and destroyer commanders whom by now would probably have moved onto senior positions or be in command of the larger vessels like the armoured cruisers and the French did build some potent ACR's namely the Edgar Quinet and Ernst Renan classes both of which are present here, and the MN had a love affair with the torpedo boat and destroyer and knew how to use them and they are present in large numbers here.
Really the KuK is in damned if you do, damned if you don't position. Against this large French force they simply don't have the numbers to prevail. The KuK lacked for light cruisers and they don't really have any truck fighting a French armoured cruiser (who also lacked light cruisers but spammed armoured cruisers to work in their stead) and there's not enough torpedo boats and destroyers to counter the French ships. The KuK had 25 DD/Torpedo boats at the start of the war, period. Here the French have 24 of their own.
To sail against this force is to risk being hemmed in and caught by the hammer and anvil which Admiral du Fournet is clearly aiming to do, pin the KuK sortie against his Danton's and crush them with his Dreadnoughts and the British Battlecruisers as well as his Armoured cruisers. The Danton's were tough ships, so just because the KuK will initially have a gunfire advantage with its Dreadnoughts, this is only at long range, and long range gunnery isn't going to win this battle. Its almost certinally bound to devolve into a brawl if the KuK Admiral is willing to and has been ordered, to press the matter and drive off the battleships supporting the troops ashore.
The area the French are lacking is scouting forces, their Protected cruisers are as fast as their dreadnoughts, and most of those ships are very old and are probably old enough that their commanders wouldn't really want to risk a full power run on their engines unless needed. Even the Chateaurenault, the fastest ship the French had of her type has her problems that will be related to her age and her engine type which were absolute fuckers to clean out (and oddly enough were a very early iteration of Small tube boilers, which helps explain why in the late 1800's they could get this ship moving at 24 knots!).
But if the ships in port sortee, then its a massacre, 1 Pre-dread, a hanful of coast defence ships, and some small vessels could be dealt with by the Danton's without the need of the Dreadnoughts.
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