Except a prudent Kaiser requires a different Kaiser, and would have prevented the fleet necessary to invade to be built, while an alliance with Russia and Austria-Hungary continuing would have promoted a focus as a land power and leadership in Continental Europe, rather than a quest for a 'Place in the Sun'. Bismark's plan for Germany was practically-tailor made to not cause conflict with the British, or at least to avoid it as much as possible. And anyway, at this point, I've got plans for the Berlin-Paris relationship from here on out so I'll stick with it.
That said, here's the next update.
Part X: Kiel
By mid-July the Milford Haven government was approaching the limits of sustainability. The coalition cabinet ministers had never been particularly keen to partake in a ‘Government of Surrender’. Quiet resignations and even quieter refusals to partake in discussion or to put one's neck out was worked around with the creation of new cabinet offices such as Smuts’ Ministry of War and the transfer of effective power to other officers of government. As no political party was keen on assuming the leadership of signing whatever treaty appeared, mass popular support for elections was not reflected in the supposed leadership of the government and that in the opposition.
Milford Haven’s solution to the crisis was to assume the responsibility and failure in his own person ever more. His sacrifice of reputation though created more problems than it solved, with the common view, and the talk of the ever-growing and ever less centralized opposition, being of a dictatorship in the making. Combined with the toxic accusations of German loyalty, both the Prime Minister and the Monarch became ever more unpopular with the masses.
If an average man on the street existed in London, or Edinburgh of Manchester, his primary concern was food, which was still not arriving in the levels needed, though in some cases he was content with the fact that after the riots, a crackdown on ‘impropriety’ and inequality in the rationing program began, and the government, at the cost of long term reserves, increased the ration. He was still living on far fewer calories than he depended on in 1914, but at least his children had access to milk once and in some cases twice a week.
His discontent though, had not faded, though it manifested itself in varied ways with few commonalities besides a need for new leadership. What that leadership entailed varied but it ranged from a return to Lord Kitchener with hints of military involvement in politics to a Red-Red-Reder-Red/Black coalition of Labour, Trade Unions, Socialists and Anarcho-Syndicalists in imitation of the much vaunted Popular Front. He may have supported the King with the belief that he was being manipulated by his inner circle, or he might have seen the monarch as just another Hun. His other big points of conversation would be the Civil War in Ireland, the Germans and French on the coast, and occasionally, whispers of political changes in the King’s Party, as it seemed from time to time that Kitchener was about to return or even that Smuts would assume leadership.
If an average soldier existed in the army, he was inevitably sitting in one of the rapidly assembled camps that the German and French armies shipped prisoners on the French Coast. Or he had deserted. Or he was still sitting in Egypt or Ottoman Arabia, waiting to go home. Or sat in bases staying on mostly for the food ration. Most likely though, that perfectly average opinionated man was dead, perhaps for some time.
But the exceptional soldiery had gone in different directions. The infamous Auxiliary Units, soon to be immortalized in history as ‘The Bastards’ and more commonly ‘The Black and Tans’ drilled in their bases, supported by a few men in the new War Ministry such as The Boy General, Roland Boys Bradford who at twenty-six had been shunted to a staff position. He saw these units, with their esprit de corps, as an elite force of stormtroopers to use in defense of the institution of government. While this view was contrary to most of the Army leadership, quiet support or at least official disinterest by the War Minister allowed him and the ‘Security Desk’ at the General Staff to continue provide equipment, funds, and other aid to these forces, who licked their wounds and like Achilles, brooded in their tends.
The other end of things would be manifested in those units of final conscripts, the workers and students who had been called up since the collapse of Italy, hastily trained and then rushed to the frontlines. It was these units that had been obliterated by the ferocious campaign to turn back the Entente though, and whose survivors made up majorities in the Franco-German prison camps across the channel and the deserters who had rapidly gone home.
Those that remained in uniform, by luck, desperation, or simply bad timing were unsurprisingly an unhappy bunch. They had been taken in large numbers from industries and trades once deemed ‘War Essential’, they had spent years before getting into uniform suffering the ever-poorer ration situation, and had not only been exposed to the increasing political radicalism abroad, but also at home. With the terrible political situation and the continued blockade and the inevitable terrible treaty at hand, they proved to be a perfect breeding ground for the radicalism of the desperate.
While the image of Sidney and Beatrice Webb addressing the soldiers and sailors of the Free Socialist Republic are the standard photographs of the army mutinies, it was not the Popular Front but of all things the Co-Operative Movement that started the end of the Revolution.
The men of the First Royal Naval Division, a naval infantry force that had been rushed into existence after the fall of Italy, had suffered terrible losses during the invasion, and had after the armistice seen its numbers boosted by the condensing of its battalions and the inclusion of remnant units of other divisions, both of the ‘Navy Corps’ other two divisions and of Army forces. The clash of tradition, as men who had served throughout the war in the maritime service were put under the command of Army officers. These tensions could easily have faded off, had it not been for the appointment of an Army Major General, Sir Cameron D. Shute.
While Shute was not entirely responsible for the terrible supply situation the ‘1st RND’ was going through at the time, that was due to the fact that the rail network that would have supplied it at its camp just outside of Guildford had been utterly destroyed in the fighting, he certainly exacerbated the situation with harsh discipline and a regular Army officers instinctive dislike for the sailors under his command.
The actual trigger of the mutiny has been buried by the events that would follow. Everything from murder to a tired young sailor mouthing off to the General has been cited by various political factions. What is known that about half a dozen men found themselves arrested on the General's Orders on the night of July 13th. As word spread around the divisional encampment, tired, hungry soldiers and sailors could set aside their differences in united anger at what what perceived as an injustice done.
At morning parade, the majority of battalions in the Division saw the men, agitated over the previous night, and carrying all the emotional weight and passions of the past several months, offer a minor rebellion, refusing to stand at attention for their senior officers. More arrests followed, as did a petition to the Major-General, signed by representatives of the Ranks, Non-Commissioned Officers and a few Junior Officers of the self-styled First Naval Division Co-Operative Committee.
Agitated, tired and angry as they were the troops had not resorted to Socialism, Vigilantism, or Anarchism. Instead they had, in no small part to members of a former ‘Pals Battalion’ that had been broken up to fill ranks in the 1st Brigade, to embrace the ideals of the Co-Operative movement, which had exploded in popularity in Britain since the introduction of rationing. Their demands were simple, practically requests, that the arrested soldiers be released, and that at the request of the troops the Major-Generals and Brigadiers of the Division host daily meetings of the Co-Operative Committee and to seek ‘ethical leadership’ so long as the Armistice continued. It was directly noted in the petition that under no circumstances would such elected committees have any power in combat, nor would they seek to replace officers as had been done by the ‘Soviets’ of the Russian Popular Front.
Shute in response to this saw nothing but a Popular Front revolt commencing. Arresting the petitioners, he sought contact from the General Staff in crushing the ‘revolt’, and sought to arrest any man who had signed on as a representative of the committee. The end result of this was something of a small riot, as the soldiers and sailors of the division sought to defend their representatives. Several concussions, broken limbs and ribs later, the senior leadership of the Division had been arrested by their own men, and the Co-Operative Committee found itself, instead of an advisory council for the airing of grievances, the de facto leadership of the entire force.
In this awkward position, they would attempt to restore the Generals to command, so long as they were willing to agree to the purpose of the Committee. Shute and his fellow officers, sure that this was a planned uprising refused to discuss any terms. The Committee, thus sought to contact the General Staff, the War Ministry and Admiralty in an attempt to explain the situation. What they viewed as a quite reasonable inquiry though as to what they should do, created something akin to mass panic.
While the 1ND would soon find itself under a Naval Captain who agreed, in the name of maintaining order and to not weaken the ‘front’, to assume command and the troops returned to their tents, to enjoy tea and lunch, the government was in a panic. The King was rushed out of London, orders for troops to defend London from the inevitable Popular Front march were sent out, and both Milford Haven and Smuts rushed to oversee the containment of the Revolution underway.
Revolution in the making or not, the extreme ends of the Army, the Political Leadership, and the Average Man on the street would all see their situations change on July 14th.
