What if different British initial strategy in WWI

NoMommsen

Donor
Yes, but which particular German army are you imagining?
North Army

IX.Reserve Corps
Seventeenth Res.Division
81.Inf.Brig. Lübeck 33.Res.Inf.Brig. Altona
Res.Field.Art.Reg. 18 Res.Hus.Reg. 6
Eighteenth Reserve Division
34.Res.Inf.Brig. 35.Res.Inf.Brig.
Res.Field.Art.Reg. 18 Res.Hus.Reg. 7

II.Bat.GuardFußart.Reg. 10 (10cm guns)

First Landwehr Division
33.mixed Landwehr Brigade (Hamburg/Bremen/Mecklenburg)
34.mixed Landwehr Brigade (Schleswig-Holstein)
37 mixed Landwehr Brigade (Baunschweig/Hannover)
38.mixed Landwehr Brigade (Lüneburg/Aurich)

Coast Guard
reinforced Landwehr Inf. Reg.

Plus some smaller detaschments on the
Northsea Islands
Borkum Sylt Pellworm


That's what was planned IOTL for the first deployment and was kept there for the first 3 weeks until it became clear, that none such attack would actually commence, as the Brits - perfidiously :openedeyewink: - decided for a wide blockade.
 
2 reserve divisions and 4 Landwehr Brigades - that a corps level force, not an army. But, wasn't there a naval division as well?
 
2 reserve divisions and 4 Landwehr Brigades - that a corps level force, not an army. But, wasn't there a naval division as well?
Not sure on the quality of the troops but the Danish army initially mobilized 58k men at the start to guard Copenhagen with 80% on the island of Sealand (might be Zealand).
 
Looking at the issue of transport and supply, distance as a crow fly from London to Esbjerg (port on Denmark's west coast) is 4 times that of Brighton to Le Harve. So you are probably looking at 1/3 the number of trips made using the same transport force for both men and supplies. Not a precise number as I do not know how much of the transport time loading and unloading which would remain relatively constant after the invasion port was secure.

Assuming an uncontested landing we would still want to triple the time it took for the BEF to embark from England and land in France OTL to give an idea of when they would be ready at the earliest. And this is assuming a deployment on the West side of Denmark or Germany. Going for a deployment to the North or East coast is only going to increase travel time further.

Of course in this scenario pretty much everything would need to be transported by sea as they would not be able to receive any supplies by land from French production like they could when deployed OTL to France.

I am also curious as to what the German 1st army is doing considering that August 23rd they engaged the BEF at Mons. Here unless the French can move forces they would be marching in the open and forfe the French 5th to give way before the German 2nd unless they want to be encircled.
 
Not sure on the quality of the troops but the Danish army initially mobilized 58k men at the start to guard Copenhagen with 80% on the island of Sealand (might be Zealand).

Thanks. 58,000 is probably too much to handle with 8 divisions, plus the Germans. To evolve an option in this direction, the Anglo-French would have to invade before the Danish mobilization were long underway, which was politically infeasible.
 
I am also curious as to what the German 1st army is doing considering that August 23rd they engaged the BEF at Mons. Here unless the French can move forces they would be marching in the open and forfe the French 5th to give way before the German 2nd unless they want to be encircled.

I assumed that Joffre would replace the missing BEF with a reserve/territorial divisional force which 1st Army attacks and defeats...
 
I assumed that Joffre would replace the missing BEF with a reserve/territorial divisional force which 1st Army attacks and defeats...
The question then becomes from where are they pulled and when can they get in line, would this be an alt-Mons with French instead of British or does it take longer so that they first fight deeper in France and the 5th has pulled back quicker?
 
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