Without a German naval program, how much stronger are the German army and air force?

CaliGuy

Banned
Without a large-scale German naval program, how much stronger are the German army and air force?

Basically, I am curious as to how much the other branches of Germany's military (such as the German army and air force) could have improved and been strengthened if Germany would have spent the money that it spent on naval expansion in our TL on these other branches instead.

Also, please keep in mind that Germany appears to have been a world leader in innovation, scientific research, and scientific development during this time. Thus, do you think that Germany could have achieved wonders in developing army/military technology and/or aviation technology in the couple of decades before the start of World War I if it wouldn't have had a large-scale naval program?

Anyway, any thoughts on this?
 
In absolute terms they could be much much stronger of course. About 25% of German defense spending went to the navy so its a lot of money

On the other hand, Russia and France always spent more on their navies than Germany did on hers. In 1914, the germans spent about 11,000,000 pounds on naval construction versus 23,000,000 for the Franco-Russians. If the Germans slash their naval spending, the French and Russians are likely to take note, cut theirs and spend more on their army as well. In this game, the Russians and French are likely to be the winners.
 
Without a large-scale German naval program, how much stronger are the German army and air force?

Basically, I am curious as to how much the other branches of Germany's military (such as the German army and air force) could have improved and been strengthened if Germany would have spent the money that it spent on naval expansion in our TL on these other branches instead.

Also, please keep in mind that Germany appears to have been a world leader in innovation, scientific research, and scientific development during this time. Thus, do you think that Germany could have achieved wonders in developing army/military technology and/or aviation technology in the couple of decades before the start of World War I if it wouldn't have had a large-scale naval program?

Anyway, any thoughts on this?

Not by one man before December 1912.

The German Army was kept deliberately small in order to keep a high proportion of Nobles in the Officer Corps, the proposal to add 300,000 men lead to only 135,000 more between 1912 and 1914. Without this limitation they could easily have raised and equipped those 300,000.

Of course the Army could have asked the Navy to provide some troops, like the British used the RM Brigade in late August in Ostend.
 
Only slightly stronger than OTL. The problem is not the funding situation, the problem is that the Army High Command did not want the army to get bigger, because if they did that then they would have to let a lot of commoners become officers, which they were against. They eventually realized they had to expand in 1912, but by then time was lacking to do much else. They could have spent more lavishly on equipment and training, but that would hit diminishing returns considering they spent pretty decently OTL

Also how much are you going to decrease naval construction? Between 1906 and the start of WWI Germany laid down 28 capital ships, France by comparison laid down 19, Germany laid down about 47% more ships than France, despite having a pop ~75% larger
 
Without a large-scale German naval program, how much stronger are the German army and air force?

Basically, I am curious as to how much the other branches of Germany's military (such as the German army and air force) could have improved and been strengthened if Germany would have spent the money that it spent on naval expansion in our TL on these other branches instead.

Also, please keep in mind that Germany appears to have been a world leader in innovation, scientific research, and scientific development during this time. Thus, do you think that Germany could have achieved wonders in developing army/military technology and/or aviation technology in the couple of decades before the start of World War I if it wouldn't have had a large-scale naval program?

Anyway, any thoughts on this?

"Air Force" is a bit anachronic : at the time, no country had a true Air Force independent from the Army. The Fliegertruppen were created in 1911 (even if the training of military pilots began in 1910). This was not a funding issue, but the gradual acknowledgment of the aircraft military value. I do not see how a reduction of the Navy's size could lead to increase in aviation development. Especially, as other posters have already pointed, the Entente armies are likely to counter any change observed in Germany. More funding in France for Coanda and his 1910 airplane ? It would be fun to have jet propulsion invented in the 1910' but, as I understand it (that is, poorly, I am not an engineer), his motorjet design was a dead-end.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Anyway, any thoughts on this?

As other mentioned, you have to deal with the Prussian officer issue. Since they had squared divisions, it is not practical to have more units per nobleman. There are two solutions to this issue. One is to have the Navy create more Marine units. The second would be creating colonial units.

And if you don't like these options and insist on moving funds from the navy to the army, you will not get more units. You get better equipped units. Things like more machine gun per battalion, maybe more trucking battalions. Also, maybe more or larger artillery. Or more rail guns. If my memory is correct, the Prussian officer limit applied to infantry, cavalry, and artillery. So anything that does not fit in these "prestige" categories can be expanded. There was proposal for substantially more trucking units, but these were voted down. This type of spending is a real possibility. So are things like more engineering units. Or more fortresses.
 
Top