I believe that the navy laws were a target to be achieved by 1920 rather than a 1906 law stating an aspiration to be met straight away.
von Spee’s cruisers based out of Namibia (German South West Africa)
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Yeah Tsingtao is the one place the Germans really poured a lot of money in. A hospitable place for Euros, A capital essentially for a large Pacific empire. Any new base would be in addition to Tsingtao. Per the link below Douala could have been made more defensible than it was, perhaps cheaply.
Douala
It's somewhat more complicated than that.
In the case of large cruisers the ships ordered in the first half of the period were "new" ships to provide the required numbers and in the second half they were replacements for existing ships that would become over age by 1920.
I intend to write a longer post which will explain it in greater detail.
According to my count Germany started ww1 with 4 battlecruisers and 9 armoured cruisers for 13 large cruisers.
The 1908 navy law called for 18 large cruisers. 10 for the battlefleet and 8 for abroad. The actual split appears to have been 10 for the battle fleet and 3 for abroad(Goeben Scharnhorst and Geneisenau). I presume if war was deferred a number of years all new large cruiser construction would have seen additional large cruisers sent abroad.
The 1908 navy law called for 18 large cruisers. 10 for the battlefleet and 8 for abroad. The actual split appears to have been 10 for the battle fleet and 3 for abroad(Goeben Scharnhorst and Geneisenau). I presume if war was deferred a number of years all new large cruiser construction would have seen additional large cruisers sent abroad.
There was a thread about creating Kamerun into this naval base earlier, kind of a fleshed out example of the Op's intent to create a naval base in Africa, the OP might be interested in. (Kamerun had some high ground hospitable for Euros, he goes big on developing the colony. Luderitz would be good spot, more healthy for Euros but its close to South Africa which could take the place overland easy.
(seems half the people are banned now who contributed, seems to happen way to much, I don't know why)
Prince Henry of Prussia: Rise of the U-boat, Redux
Yea, it is a bitchy tactical issue. Each side has strong incentive to attack, and the attack could prove costly. In the last version, I had the main naval base in Tanga, but this time, I decide to make it more exciting. I have to check the numbers, but seems like a 15" with high elevation on...
www.alternatehistory.com
(seems half the people are banned now who contributed, seems to happen way to much, I don't know why)
To do defense cheaply of colonial places, seems like you take a couple of the oldest dreadnoughts, strip use their guns in a few emplacements, store some mines, store some ammo, give some stipends for a few naval reservists to settle in the colonies to man the guns. Might actually hold the place if in a war against France only, hold longer if Britain was in as well.
I compiled this from a book called German Sea-Power, Its Rise, Progress, and Economic Basis by Archibald Hurd and Henry Castle, published in 1913 which I found on Google Books. It's appendices include English translations of the German Navy Laws.
According to the Act relating to the German Fleet of April 10, 1898 (better known as the German First Navy Law) there were 10 large cruisers existing or under construction on April 1, 1898. The Act increased the establishment to 12 large cruisers which was to be reached by the end of the 1903 financial year, i.e. 31st March 1904.
The 1898 establishment was increased to 14 and then 20 large cruisers as follows:
Under the 1898 Act the provision of the means for the necessary replacement construction was subject to annual determination by the Imperial Budget, with the standard that, as the rule large cruisers could be replaced at the end of 20 years. The period ran from the year of the granting of the first instalment of the ship to be replaced to the granting of the first instalment of the replacing ship. To a prolongation of the replacement period the consent of the Federal Council was required in the individual case, to an abbreviation that of the Reichstag.
The subsequent Acts did not change the replacement rules for large cruisers.
According to the Act relating to the German Fleet of April 10, 1898 (better known as the German First Navy Law) there were 10 large cruisers existing or under construction on April 1, 1898. The Act increased the establishment to 12 large cruisers which was to be reached by the end of the 1903 financial year, i.e. 31st March 1904.
The 1898 establishment was increased to 14 and then 20 large cruisers as follows:
Under the 1898 Act the provision of the means for the necessary replacement construction was subject to annual determination by the Imperial Budget, with the standard that, as the rule large cruisers could be replaced at the end of 20 years. The period ran from the year of the granting of the first instalment of the ship to be replaced to the granting of the first instalment of the replacing ship. To a prolongation of the replacement period the consent of the Federal Council was required in the individual case, to an abbreviation that of the Reichstag.
The subsequent Acts did not change the replacement rules for large cruisers.
END OF PART ONE
THE GERMAN FIRST NAVY LAW 1898
Schedule A of the Act relating to the German Fleet of June 14, 1900 (better known as the German Second Navy Law) was an enumeration of the ships to be reckoned to the fixed establishment on the promulgation of the law. That is a list of the names of the 27 battleships, 12 large cruisers and 29 of the 30 small cruisers needed to bring the navy up to its 1898 establishment.
This is my version of the list of the 12 large cruisers.
So the 1898 Establishment of 12 large cruisers was reached before the end of the 1903 financial year that is before 31st March 1904.
END OF PART TWO
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THE GERMAN SECOND NAVY LAW 1900
A memorandum appended to the Navy Bill of 1900 asked for an increase to 20 large cruisers (8 as scouts for the Battle Fleet, 8 for the Foreign Service Fleet and 4 as the Material Reserve). The memorandum also asked for the number of battleships to be increased from 27 to 38.
This increased the total number of large ships from 39 under the Act of 1898 to 58 under the new bill. That is 19 additional ships which had to fit as expedient into the gaps left by the replacement buildings which fell due during the next few years.
The memorandum also said that 27 large ships (17 battleships and 10 large cruisers) would become due for replacement between 1901 and 1917 as follows.
- In the year 1901: Seven large ships (four of the Sachsen class and the 3 large cruisers König Wilhelm, Kaiser and Deutschland).
- In the twelve years 1902 to 1913: Three large ships (Oldenburg, Siegfried and the large cruiser Kaiserin Augusta).
- In the four years 1914 to 1914: Seventeen large ships (seven of the Siegfried class, four of the Brandenburg class, the five Hertha class large cruisers and the large cruiser Fürst Bismarck).
The Act relating to the German Fleet of June 14, 1900 (better known as the German Second Navy Law) authorised the 2 additional scouts for the battle fleet, but not the extra ships for the foreign service fleet and the material reserve. The new establishment was 14 large cruisers (8 as scouts for the Battle Fleet, 3 for the Foreign Service Fleet and 3 as the Material Reserve) instead of the 20.
The replacements for König Wilhelm, Kaiser and Deutschland were laid down 1901-03 and completed 1903-06. They were followed by the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst laid down 1904-05 and completed 1907-08. Thus the 1900 Establishment for large cruisers was reached by the end of the 1907 financial year, i.e. 31st March 1908.
This is a list of the 14 ships.
END OF PART THREE
END OF PART THREE
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THE 1906 AMENDMENT
Source: German Sea-Power, Its Rise, Progress, and Economic Basis by Archibald Hurd and Henry Castle, published in 1913, via Google Books.
This Act authorised the 6 large cruisers in the 1900 Bill that weren't included in the 1900 Act and allowed construction to continue at the rate of one a year until the Victoria Louise class became due for replacement. The twentieth ship was nearing completion in August 1914.
END OF PART FOUR
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Was there any hint of where the 8 Large Cruisers would be based, or how they would be distributed? Or which ones would be deployed overseas? Royal Navy practice would be to put the oldest ones on foreign station, with a scattering of light cruisers.
The translations of the navy laws in Appendix I give no hint of either.
The translation of the Memorandum appended to the German Navy Bill, 1900 in Appendix II has a section discussing the proposed increase in foreign service ships that is five paragraphs long which explains at length why it's wasn't possible to say where they would be based or how they would be distributed. This is the final paragraph.
However, Chapter V of the book which is about the Navy Acts does say that that two of the three large cruisers in the Foreign Service Fleet in the 1898 Law were for East Asia while the third was for Central and South America.
Therefore, my guess is that the five additional ships proposed in the 1900 Bill and authorized in the 1906 Act would normally be stationed in Germany and be sent overseas as circumstances dictated.
Not remembering what I read in the book correctly might be what inspired what I wrote in Post 20, which was...
The section on the 1898 Act in Chapter V includes the three large cruisers and four small cruisers in the Foreign Service Fleet which increases their totals from three to six and ten to fourteen respectively. However, the section on the 1900 Act in that chapter and the translations of the Acts in Appendix I clearly show the material reserve as being separate from the battle and foreign service fleets.
Not remembering the section about the 1898 Act in Chapter V correctly might have inspired what I wrote in Post 20 as well.
It doesn't say but my guess is what you wrote because that's roughly what the British and the Germans did IOTL.
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FWIW the following RN forces were in the South Atlantic at the outbreak of the Great War.
Cape Station - Three cruisers
These were the RN forces adjacent to the South Atlantic.
And Cruisers of the Royal and Commonwealth Navies by Douglas Morris.
Cape Station - Three cruisers
- Highflyer (Flag.) a Highflyer class second class protected cruiser completed in 1900
- Astraea an Astraea class second class protected cruiser completed in 1895
- Pegaus a Pelorus class third class protected cruiser completed in 1897. She was sunk on 20th September 1914 by Königsberg the German light cruiser operating from German East Africa.
These were the RN forces adjacent to the South Atlantic.
- The Fifth Cruiser Squadron covered the Mid-Atlantic are between the West Coast of Africa and Brazil which one of the sources I am using says, "In which lay the converging points of the great southern trade." It had four armoured cruisers. These were the Devonshire class Carnarvon (Flag.) and the Monmouth class Cornwall, Cumberland and Monmouth.
- The Town class light cruiser Glasgow was on the South East Coast of America Station.
- Finally, there was the East Indies Squadron, with the battleship Swiftsure, the Town class light cruisers Dartmouth and Weymouth, the Astraea class second class protected cruiser Fox completed in 1895 and four sloops.
And Cruisers of the Royal and Commonwealth Navies by Douglas Morris.
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You have Tanga and Dar es Salam, however both are hurt by the presence of the British base in Zanzibar near by, and I think really the only African base that is invulnerable by geography to parking a Canopus battleship outside and sinking everyone in the port eventually, is Doulea in Kamerun, if fortified just a bit.
German warships in the South Atlantic/Africa/Caribbean at the outbreak of the Great War.
West Africa Station:
2 gunboats SMS Panther, SMS Eber
East Africa Station : Dar es Saleem, German East Africa
Survey vessel SMS Mowe, Small Cruiser SMS Königsberg (1905)
East and West America Station:
SMS Karlsruhe (1912) who had days before arrived to replace SMS Dresden (1907), so both ships were still in theatre.
Source The Kaiser's Pirates by John Walter.
Agree, any commerce raiding is futile ultimately,. Tirpitz was right. I think the Germans with some small effort though could have made Kamerun and East Africa, more difficult than they were OTL. A few old pre dreadnought guns, some mines, an old torpedo boat or two, a few machine guns, some naval reservists paid to settle there. Make the British expend some effort to take these places.
And enough to hold if a France Russia only war.
Yes, like happened in German East Africa under Lettew-Vorbeck (sic).
And?
The British have naval vessels and colonial troops to spare.
This completes what I wrote in Posts 27 to 30 and is what I think the German large cruiser force would have been at the end of 1920 if World War One hadn't happened.
According to the Act of 1912 they would have been assigned as follows:
According to the Act of 1912 they would have been assigned as follows:
- 8 to the Active Battle Fleet - all of these ships would be in commission with full crews.
- 4 to the Reserve Battle Fleet of which:
- 1 would be in commission with full crews.
- 3 would be in reserve with nucleus crews.
- 8 to the Foreign Service Fleet.
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