WI: “It’s just a prank, Bro!” snowballs into a World War?

Some of you may be familiar with Horace Cole, an early 20th century Cambridge student who was friends with Virginia Wolf and her brother Adrian Stephen; history remembers Horace as the man behind the “Zanzibar Hoax” and the “Dreadnought Hoax” when he fooled government officials and the British Navy into thinking he is an African royal on a diplomatic visit, making naval officers give him a tour of the most modern and secretive ships in the world at the time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax

But things might have turned out even stranger if Horace and his friends decided to go with a different prank they initially considered:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/07/dreadnought-hoax-virginia-woolf/
It all began in 1905, when Adrian Stephen and Horace Cole were attending Cambridge and, out of boredom, decided to play a little prank. Their initial idea was to acquire some uniforms, impersonate German officers, and march a detachment of troops across the border into France.
What if they pull this off and the incident spirals into World War One?

Would people believe it all started out as a prank?

How might a joke causing one of the bloodiest conflicts in history impact culture and etiquette going forward?

How would history remember Virginia Wolf and her brother?
 
I wouldn't say it is likely relevant as if they were to somehow pull this off, the first people to fire at them would likely be farmers who probably wouldn't have a clue what an English accent sounds like or a military detachment who would be more worried about the "soldiers" marching towards them. I would say it is most likely to be a case of shoot first and ask question later.

Now if this was to spark a global war I would see anyone involved who isn't already dead either by gunshot or potentially suicide to be trialed and likely hung. It could be possible that the names of Cole, Stephen and Wolf would become as reviled say, Hitler, Pol Pot or Stalin is generally today, regardless if they are vastly different personalities.

While I cannot see them pulling this off by any means even the attempt of such has the potential to cause a political scandal.
 
I wouldn't say it is likely relevant as if they were to somehow pull this off, the first people to fire at them would likely be farmers who probably wouldn't have a clue what an English accent sounds like or a military detachment who would be more worried about the "soldiers" marching towards them. I would say it is most likely to be a case of shoot first and ask question later.

I agree with this. That, and I've encountered more than one German with an British-sounding accent. Usually by being educated there. But yes, once foreign soldiers (or looking, at any rate) cross the border...and shots are fired... it's on. Europe wasn't quite the powder keg as it would be 9 years later, but I think a "detachment of German soldiers" crossing the border would be quite enough. Even if the group lost the uniforms, and blended in with other tourists, such a story would grow in retellings until it was multiple corp crossing. France would activate all defensive treaties, Germany would deny, and at least get A-H on board...maybe others.

Now if this was to spark a global war I would see anyone involved who isn't already dead either by gunshot or potentially suicide to be trialed and likely hung. It could be possible that the names of Cole, Stephen and Wolf would become as reviled say, Hitler, Pol Pot or Stalin is generally today, regardless if they are vastly different personalities.

If it's found out. I do agree with you though. If someone accidentally started the slaughter of something like World War 1 by means of a prank...I think if they get away from France alive, they probably commit suicide in horror

It would make an interesting TL
 
Now if this was to spark a global war I would see anyone involved who isn't already dead either by gunshot or potentially suicide to be trialed and likely hung. It could be possible that the names of Cole, Stephen and Wolf would become as reviled say, Hitler, Pol Pot or Stalin is generally today, regardless if they are vastly different personalities.
Remembered like Hitler or Stalin? Nah. They may be seen the dumbest and/or most unlucky people in existence, but definitely not as pure evil

Remembered like Gavrilo Princip is more likely.
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Well, at least Gavilo Princip had serious political motivations for his actions. To have a Group of high class British youngsters starting a war (what I see as not that probable) for a prank would be far far worse
 
Well, at least Gavilo Princip had serious political motivations for his actions. To have a Group of high class British youngsters starting a war (what I see as not that probable) for a prank would be far far worse
There could be interesting repercussions about the nobility system in the UK. I mean, they're supposed to be the reasonable upper class after all, and now all the tommies and johns got sent to the slaughter because a young rich bloke got bored?
 
So...a bunch of teenagers flash-mob the Archduke as a joke and he shits himself and has a heart attack in response, and then World War One starts? Wow, talk about a bunch of people who will be remembered as the biggest shitheads in history.

What about a War of the Worlds-style broadcast that says that the Nazis invaded Poland when they hadn’t yet done it? France and Britain believe it, they don’t believe Hitler when he says he didn’t do it, and to ice it, an unrelated panic in Poland makes people think the Nazis actually invaded Poland, and the Nazis, caught off-guard, end up in a war with the Wallies.
 
So...a bunch of teenagers flash-mob the Archduke as a joke and he shits himself and has a heart attack in response, and then World War One starts? Wow, talk about a bunch of people who will be remembered as the biggest shitheads in history.
If a bunch of teenagers flash-mobbed Franz Ferdinand and gave him a heart attack, WW1 wouldn't have started, because Austria would have nobody to release their pent up anger against (unless they were Serbian teenagers or something, but that would be... weird)
 
If a bunch of teenagers flash-mobbed Franz Ferdinand and gave him a heart attack, WW1 wouldn't have started, because Austria would have nobody to release their pent up anger against (unless they were Serbian teenagers or something, but that would be... weird)

Unless the Serbians got blamed for letting loose the country’s greatest shitheads on the Archduke. I mean, one shithead from a group called the Black Hand started this whole mess and the Serbians got blamed.
 
Well, at least Gavilo Princip had serious political motivations for his actions. To have a Group of high class British youngsters starting a war (what I see as not that probable) for a prank would be far far worse

I don't see it as likely either. Certainly stranger things have happened, though
 
I think Horace de Vere Cole also bore a striking resemblance to Ramsay MacDonald and, in later life, often impersonated him at Labour Party meetings where his speech would cause the intended confusion. The man really had too much time on his hands. Other possibilities arise when one considers he was also the brother-in-law of Neville Chamberlain and the nephew of a Governor of the Bank of England.
 
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I think Horace de Vere Cole also bore a striking resemblance to Ramsay MacDonald and, in later life, often impersonated him at Labour Party meetings where his speech would cause the intended confusion. The man really had too much time on his hands. Other possibilities arise when one considers he was also the brother-in-law of Neville Chamberlain and the nephew of a Governor of the Bank of England.

I think the last time he did the MacDonald imitation, he was walking down the street and a group of workers asked MacDonald for a speech. Cole delivered a short lecture on how he was abandoning the Labour Party, carefully backing away all the time. He got away safely.

That seems to have been not long before Ramsay MacDonald, the real Ramsay MacDonald, was expelled from the Labour Party. At the time, he was Prime Minister!
 
I don't think its possible. Passing one self off as an officer of your own nation is one thing, as a German is another. Added to that, Where are the order to do so? If he tries this he has to have a considerable rank to get those troops out of garrison, and every senior officer is going to be known to the officers of the garrison. Even if, somehow, they pull this off, cooler heads will soon stop the war. Europe went to war over treaties, and when no one can find who gave the orders, (and that will be VERY soon), the whole thing stops. Possible casualties, some incredibly bad public relations news, and possibly a review of the treaty system between the European nations. If the offenders are caught, what happens I simply don't know. This is a very considerable crime, attempting to start a war (regardless of the attempt at humor or seeing what a person can get away with) is how it will be viewed. In Germany impersonating an officer of the Army is a crime IIRC. If the Germans catch them, especially if shots are fired and people are killed, Im not sure how Britain will react or what they will try to do for them. If the French catch them, well they certainly aren't going to be amused either.
 
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