Not to mention coastal batteries available for shipment to Denmark, even if these had to be stripped from pre-dreadnoughts.
Even with the HSF sunk, Germany has plenty of destroyers and submarines to slaughter a mine-sweeping force.
I'm thinking that clearing the Belts against Danish resitance backed by the CP would prove to be a political disaster (making war on neutral Denmark) and a military disaster as well (I rather suspect the defences of the Belts were much stronger than those which defeated the Entente at the Straights in 1915).
I agree. Though I haven't found details on the Danish forts and guns on the Belts/Sound apparently the Germans considered them too strong to risk an assault on Zeeland. In their contingency plans for occupying Denmark they planned only to occupy Jutland. Danish coastal defenses on the islands made it too dangerous to attempt to take them. If the Germans didn't view it as feasible to force the Belts/Sound there's no way in hell the Royal Navy could do it in the face of Danish and German resistance. Even with the HSF sunk, Germany has plenty of destroyers and submarines to slaughter a mine-sweeping force.
Not to mention coastal batteries available for shipment to Denmark, even if these had to be stripped from pre-dreadnoughts.
If the Entente attempted to clear the Kattagat of mines etc and Denmark resisted them / and /or Germany started shipping additional Gun Batteries to them I put it to you that Denmark is no longer Neutral - so the political problem of fighting Denmark goes away.
I'd hazard a guess that Denmark would have feared doing nothing to defend itself would lead to a German invasion, so I wouldn't count on Denmark doing nothing; its not like Greece where the German army was a long way away.I suspect that Denmark would simply have done nothing in such an event so long as the Entente or CP did not invade etc.
It does matter however, if Denmark is no longer neutral they lose Greenland and Iceland, temporarily if they're invaded, but probably permanently if they freely join the CP.That's similar to saying that after Germany attacked Liege, Belgium was no longer neutral because it accepted assistance from the Entente.
They'd also have to factor in though, a situation similar to the Rape of Belgium.I'd hazard a guess that Denmark would have feared doing nothing to defend itself would lead to a German invasion, so I wouldn't count on Denmark doing nothing; its not like Greece where the German army was a long way away.