WW1 Naval What If question

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The other thing is that in 1914/15 only the Germans really had a sizeable modern siege artillery (okay, they nevertheless asked the Austrians to lend them some Skodas). - Trying to defend Calais as a kind of bridgehead would be no good idea in the face of the German heavy artillerie - even leaving out the Fat Berthas and 30.5 cm Küstenmörser, the 210 mm howitzers were able to destroy everything not buried deep and protected by several inches of concrete.
 
When did rail guns first get used? A naval gun could be used like Anzio Annie, to fire shells right into an enclave's unloading facilities.
 
The British records of amphibious landing's and advancing out of beacheads wasn't particularly impressive. What would make a landing behind the lines perform any better than Salonika or Gallipoli (which enjoyed the dubious distrinction of being thrashed by the Bulgarians and the Turks respectively for what would likely be regarded as a negative in the strategic sense)... if they landed in calais or belgium they would face GERMAN troops who would likely box them in and then stand off and beat the hell out of them with artillery... it would likely be a total mess



Iirc, there weren't many amphibious landings anywhere in the Great War. In the Baltic, the Germans had a comfortable naval superiority over the Russians, yet never managed an amphibious landing until October 1917 (the islands of Osel and Dago), when Russia was in a virtual state of collapse.

This, as I understand it, was due to the Russians' extensive use of mines. Any reason why the Germans couldn't do likewise? Mines were quite a problem even at the Dardanelles, and Germany probably had more to hand than Turkey.
 
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Jellicoe didn't pursue Scheer at Jutland for fear of mines and uboats, not did the GF go too close to the German coast for fear of mines. It takes a big effort to clear mines near an enemy held coast, you need sea supremecy and domination of the coast deep enough to supress the coastal guns that will sink your minesweepers.
 
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