Three days in Augusts 1914

Better than a full scale war, is it not.
Well, that's why I think you need to add a paragraph or two more. Without those, I only have my own thinking, which suggests "invade Germany and take captives" is tantamount to a declaration of full scale war.
 
Well, that's why I think you need to add a paragraph or two more. Without those, I only have my own thinking, which suggests "invade Germany and take captives" is tantamount to a declaration of full scale war.
Germany has already invaded the Netherlands, so what is the difference of the Netherlands moving into Germany if it could end the crisis.
 
Chapter VIII: Augusts 4th (the kidnapping part I)

The day was almost at the end, when several German officers belong to a Uhlan regiment where taking another beer in a well supplied barn of a farm, one of the officers, a major named Reger was celebrating his 30 birthday, one of hiss fellow collages told him that a special guest would arrive to congratulate him, not soon as that was told the door of the farm was open and in came a tall German officer wearing a general uniform, a cheer went up ''Es lebe der Kronprinz', the offer that stepped into the barn was none other than the German Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander of the 5th German Army who was inspecting German border troops.

After having spend some time among the officers the crown prince went outside to order his bodyguards to feed his horse, but when he did not return one of the German officers inside the barn went outside and discovered that the crown prince after having given his bodyguards some orders had disappeared.
 
Oh shit. This will not end well. Not all. Germans will not like about that.
I think the Dutch government won't like it either. Playing fast and loose with a ranking general is already tricky business to do without angering the target more than you scare him.

Doing it with a Crown Prince? I'd sooner expect the government to (at least publically) free him all unharmed and exile the perpetrators to Borneo.
 
I do like the story, especially the twist. How unlike it seams, it is a prime example how small events, seamingly unimportant an in most caes , lost in history are the determined factor how big events unfold.
I do like to see the start of the story as a starting point where the Netherlands do get involved in the GreatWar. And investigate the effect this will have on the course of war form August tiill the end of the year and form then on the course of the rest of the war and the aftermath.
 
I do like the story, especially the twist. How unlike it seams, it is a prime example how small events, seamingly unimportant an in most caes , lost in history are the determined factor how big events unfold.
I do like to see the start of the story as a starting point where the Netherlands do get involved in the GreatWar. And investigate the effect this will have on the course of war form August tiill the end of the year and form then on the course of the rest of the war and the aftermath.
I would think that relations between the Netherlands and Belgium would be much better, also i would assume that among the Belgium refugees that manged to enter the Netherlands are also Belgian military troops who most likely would than travel to the United Kingdom before they would move to the French Republic in order to fight the Germans.
 
Chapter X: Augusts 4th (the kidnapping part II)

What the German officers did not know, was that Crown Prince Wilhelm after having given orders to his bodyguards, had gone to take a pee, but not knowingly had crossed the German-Netherlands border, there a group of Netherlands soldiers had waited for a opportunity to take a German officer, manged to take the crown prince and quikly manged to take him into a nearby car who drove him to the regional command located in the city of Sittard before the crown prince was transported to a secure location somewhere in the Netherlands.
 
Yeah, no, they're fools if they think this will defuse the crisis rather than escalate it out of control. I'm not sure what convinced them that hostage taking would do anything else.
 
Yeah, no, they're fools if they think this will defuse the crisis rather than escalate it out of control. I'm not sure what convinced them that hostage taking would do anything else.
They take all the risk, if they did not it would still be war.
 
They take all the risk, if they did not it would still be war.

If that's their decision, I'm sure there are better ways they could have used whatever surprise they may have had. Anything else they could have done would have been less of a provocation and still probably had more military value.

Besides, it contradicts the characterization of the Dutch government as war-phobic at this time to escalate things so recklessly.
 
If that's their decision, I'm sure there are better ways they could have used whatever surprise they may have had. Anything else they could have done would have been less of a provocation and still probably had more military value.
What could they have done than, allow the Germans to keep using Limburg in order to get into Belgium, the British and French might not like that, fully resist, not the local fighting that is happening now in the province of Limburg, that means a full blown war they will lose.
 
Chapter XI: Augusts 4th (Germans get some news)

While Crown Prince Wilhelm was being moved to a secure location somewhere in the Netherlands, the German government had decided to declare war onto the Netherlands, but that changed when Emperor Wilhelm II received word that his son had been kidnapped by the Netherlands, Emperor Wilhelm II despite feeling anger about the kidnapping of his son did not feel so much about declaring war.

Emperor Wilhelm II knew that Germany would look foolish when it became known that a handful of Netherlands soldiers had manged to kidnapped his son so just across the German border, he decided that a cover up was a good idea at this moment. He gave his minster of foreign affairs the order to make contact with his Netherlands counterpart in order to discus this situation, that would mean that negotiations would have to be done with the Netherlands.
 
What could they have done than, allow the Germans to keep using Limburg in order to get into Belgium, the British and French might not like that, fully resist, not the local fighting that is happening now in the province of Limburg, that means a full blown war they will lose.

They're locked into the full-blown war right now, is my point. The Germans aren't gonna let them off the hook no matter what after they had the gall to try and use a member of the royal family as a bargaining chip. And if they're okay with all-out war, then there's better things they could have done to prepare for it.

Whatever inexplicable climbdown the Germans would be forced into is sure to raise questions, questions that would lead to the public hearing about the hostage taking, so coverup isn't going to work in the long run, and in the short run could jeopardize the larger operation. Diplomacy is inconveniently slow, hence their OTL use of short-term ultimatums instead of negotiation.
 
I do not see fighting contained in a single province as a full-blown war, also neither the Netherlands nor Germany have declared war yet on each other.

The Germans were committed to an ultimatum that the Dutch are clearly not going to satisfy, and I still don't think the kidnapping can be concealed for long. The prince's safety still isn't really in question, since the Germans would unleash real hell on the Netherlands if he were executed, so that can be dismissed as a threat. So basically, it all comes down to the awkward questions that would come up when the Germans back down from the ultimatum they set, plus whatever complications the Schlieffen plan runs into if they stop to negotiate with the Dutch over their force dispositions while they have a war to win.
 
Why would the Netherlands execute the crown prince, they only want him to bargain with, there is no reason for them to kill him.

Right, I said that's not a danger, so the Germans can go to war with the Dutch without worrying too much about that.
 
Right, I said that's not a danger, so the Germans can go to war with the Dutch without worrying too much about that.
And that helps the British and French more as it diverts German troops that could be needed for the campaign in Belgium and France.
 
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