von Spee’s cruisers based out of Namibia (German South West Africa)
- Thread starter I want to learn
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It looks as if conducting cruiser warfare in a conflict against the largest navy in the world wasn't in the Foreign Service Fleet's job description.
The Memorandum attached to the 1900 Bill says that if the proposed increases to the Foreign Service Fleet were approved (along with the extra cruisers for the Material Reserve) the Foreign Service Fleet would be in a position:
- Energetically to uphold German interests everywhere in time of peace.
- To be adequate for warlike conflicts with oversea States without navies deserving of the name.
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I think the best that can be done is to have one or two cruisers on the East Africa Station because I think that the station isn't important enough to justify more ships in peacetime.
The ships would be large cruisers of the Victoria Louise class or small cruisers because I think the station isn't important enough for one or two of the newer large cruisers in peacetime.
I also think that having one or two of the newer large cruisers on the station would be a waste of resources in the event of a war with Great Britain. I think that small cruisers and large cruisers of the Victoria Louise class would be just as effective conducting cruiser warfare on the Freetown to Cape of Good Hope route and acting as a fleet in being.
There were also 6 large protected cruisers that were 2nd class cruisers under the 1893 Classification and were re-designated as large cruisers under the 1898 Law and the 1899 Classification. That made a total of 19 large cruisers at the start of World War One.
The 6 ships were of the Kaiserin Augusta and Victoria Louise classes which were completed between 1892 and 1899. According to Conways 1860-1905 they were smaller and less heavily armed than contemporary British first class protected cruisers (Blake, Edgar, Powerful and Diadem classes) but superior to contemporary British second class protected cruisers (Apollo, Astraea, Eclipse, Arrogant, Highflyer and Challenger classes).
The 1906 and 1908 Navy Laws called for 20 large cruisers. That is 8 for the battle fleet, 8 for the foreign service fleet and 4 for the material reserve. The 1912 Navy Law still called for 20 large cruisers but 12 would be in the battle fleet, 8 would be in the foreign service fleet and none would be in the material reserve which was abolished.
FWIW my presumption is that because the actual split at the outbreak of war was 16 at home and 3 abroad the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would be replaced by two of the oldest battle-cruisers (probably Goeben and Moltke so there would be a homogenous force) and the battle-cruiser in the Mediterranean would be a ship of the Derfflinger class (or one of the ships built to replace the 3 newest Victoria Louse class) if war was deferred a number of years.
This is because the large cruiser force was one short of the 20 authorised at the start of World War One IOTL. If they were going to base the 20th large cruiser overseas my guess is that it would be used for reinforce the Mediterranean Squadron.
According to its Wikipaedia entry Kaiserin Augusta was modernised 1903-05 in reserve from 1905 to July 1914 when she was re-commissioned as a gunnery training ship to relieve Blücher which joined the High Seas Fleet. All 5 of the Victoria Louise class had been training ships since 1907-09 if the Wikipaedia entry on the class is accurate.
Therefore, my guess is that at the end of 1920 Fürst Bismarck (the oldest existing large cruiser) would be in reserve and the next 5 oldest large cruisers (Prinz Heinrich, Prinz Adalbert, Friedrich Carl, Roon and Yorck) would be serving as training ships.
This is an additional reason why I think its unlikely that additional large cruisers would have been sent abroad if war was deferred for a number of years. The only reason I can see for more than 3 or 4 ships to be abroad if war was deferred is if some of the training ships were cruising abroad and couldn't make it back to Germany before war was declared.
In terms of possible German actions against UK trade, an interesting discussion going on here
www.tapatalk.com
All the World's Battlecruisers-Battle of Rio de Oro
The battle of Rio de Oro between HMS Highflyer and SMS Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse didn’t involve battlecruisers and does not seem to have influenced
www.tapatalk.com
There wasn't any hint of where the 15 Small Cruisers on foreign service under the 1900 Bill would be based or how they would be distributed either. This is for the same reasons that I provided for the large cruisers in Post 32.
However, I have found the proposed distribution of the 10 Small Cruisers on foreign service under the 1898 Law which is as follows:
- 3 for East Asia
- 3 for Central and South America
- 2 for East Africa
- 2 for the South Seas
The North America and West Indies Station under Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock was the British equivalent to the German East and West America Station.
It's forces at the start of World War One were:
- The 4th Cruiser squadron with four County class armoured cruisers (Suffolk (Flag), Lancaster, Essex and Berwick) and the Town class light cruiser Bristol in the West Indies.
- Two sloops off the west coast of Mexico.
Sources
The Naval-History.Net website https://www.naval-history.net/WW1Book-RN1a.htm#2
Cruisers of the Royal and Commonwealth Navies by Douglas Morris
Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905
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I've been consulting a book on Scribd called The Kaiser'sBattlefleet - German Capital Ships 1871-1918 by Aiden Dodson as part of my research for the thread. There's a picture of Moltke during a goodwill visit to the United States in 1912.
According to Moltke's Wikipaedia's she left Kiel on 11th May 1912, accompanied by the light cruisers Stettin and Bremen, and arrived off Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 30th May and after touring the East Coast for two weeks, she returned to Kiel on 24th June.
I think it's unlikely that a battlecruiser would be sent as far as the South Atlantic, but another goodwill visit to the USA in the summer of 1914 seems plausible to me.
Edit: I take the last sentence back. See Post 61 by @YYJ.
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Is your POD for this the aftermath of the Battle of Coronel? That is he decides to head for GSWA instead of raiding the Falkland Islands?
Deleted member 2186
Well if von Spee knows there is a German naval base that he can reach without needing to travel all the way back to Germany, he could try his best to avoid any battle with the British.
And once in it may be hard to get out because it's not far from the British naval base at Simonstown with maintenance and repair facilities included a dry dock that was 790 feet long and 95 feet wide. I had to resort to Wikipaedia for that information - Sorry!
That was my thinking too because it seemed to be a lot more feasible than trying to travel all the way back to Germany. The main problem that I can see is that it's further to GSWA than it is to Port Stanley so he might not have enough coal.
I think regardless, Luderitz was abandoned by the Germans by then and Douala in Kamerun was occupied by the end of September. So really IMO Spee should stay in the Pacific and try to defend some colony, or scatter and hope some ships make it back to Germany
If you had some time line where there was a long build up to the war (i.e. a long time between mobilization and war) then the Germans could have mobilized the reservists and put some of these old ACs on the high seas.
Otherwise I think its best just to send one of the most ancient PBs out and "Canopus" them, like Port Stanly and defend a base or two. Maybe keep open a base for when Spee comes around towards home, or just hold on to a colony or two when the war ends (it was supposed to be over by Christmas right).
Deleted member 2186
Ore he should have taken over a small island and hold it, that is until HMAS Australia (1911) shows up.
It might happen anyway. I saw a Youtube video (probably on Drachinifel) about the Battle of the Falklands in which I think it was said that in addition to Sturdee's force...
- The Australian Squadron was coming across the Pacific so von Spee couldn't turn back.
- A force built around the battlecruiser Princess Royal was in the West Indies in case he tried to go up the west coast of South America and through the Panama Canal.
- More cruisers were covering the Pernambuco - Freetown gap in case von Spee evaded Sturdee.
- The Cape Station had been reinforced in case von Spee tried to break into the Indian Ocean.
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