Challenging Britain: An Imperial German AAR

[cuirasspolisher]

Aug 28, 2018 13:45:01 GMT -6 aeson said:

Aug 28, 2018 13:02:42 GMT -6 cuirasspolisher said:

34 battlecruisers?! I pity the British taxpayer. Fisher must have some real dirt on members of Parliament for them to give him practically infinite funding.

Actually, I tend to feel that Britain's fleet at that point was on the small side; by this stage of the game I generally expect that the US and Great Britain will have about 40 to 50 capital ships mostly in the 35,000- to 45,000-ton range, but Britain had only about 42 capital ships, and nine of them were merely 18,000t Treaty ships while a few more were leftover early dreadnoughts in the 20,000- to 25,000-ton range.

I don't usually play on Very Large fleet size, which is why the number surprised me. I don't think I've ever seen the AI build four times as many battlecruisers as battleships; it seems to prefer a 1.5:1 or 2:1 ratio. That should lead to some interesting fleet battles.

[aeson]

In February of 1932, German agents in London recovered complete blueprints for the American James Monroe-class battlecruiser Constellation from a dumpster behind Admiralty House, and after some debate the German government decided to pass this discovery on to the government of the United States. Through some ... misfortune, word of the British espionage leaked to the American press, provoking popular outrage at British iniquity. The German government, of course, had no idea of how this information came before the press. For the next two months, Britain was embroiled in diplomatic disputes with the United States, with the German government naturally backing its friend and ally, and by May the situation had come to a head and war was declared.

The first naval action of the war was a clash between light forces near Terschelling on 9 May, in which three British destroyers and one German torpedo boat were sunk. This, the smallest engagement of the war, would soon be overshadowed by the Fifth Battle of Jutland, or alternatively as the First Battle of Jutland of the Second Anglo-German War, which took place during the day of 21 June, when eight battleships and eleven battlecruisers of the German Hochseeflotte met six battleships and five battlecruisers of the British Home Fleet. Just after 0600 on 21 June, lookouts on the Hela-class third class cruiser Gazelle sighted a light cruiser of the British Home Fleet's Scout Force and reported it to the flagship of the Hochseeflotte's Scout Force, the Derfflinger-class battlecruiser Graudenz. For the next hour, contact was maintained as the British and German Scout Forces closed with one another. Shortly after 0700, the battlecruisers of the two fleets' Scout Forces sighted one another, with the British Australia-class battlecruisers Australia, Roxburgh, and Invincible ranged against the German Blucher-class battlecruisers Thetis and Moltke, the Derfflinger-class battlecrusiers Graudenz and Rostock, and the Lutzow-class battlecruiser Seydlitz. Eight minutes after the engagement commenced, at 0713, the British battlecruiser Roxburgh was destroyed by an explosion thought to have been caused by a flash fire in Y Turret. Australia and Invincible continued the engagement against the five German battlecruisers, but at 0732 Invincible suffered the same fate as Roxburgh, destroyed after a 16" shell penetrated A Turret and a flash fire detonated the magazine. Australia then attempted to withdraw from the engagement, but was too badly damaged to out-run the German battlecruisers and was only saved by the arrival of the battleships Royal Oak, Ramillies, London, and Revenge, the Goliath-class treaty battleships Goliath and Albion, and the Lion-class treaty battlecruisers Queen Mary and Tiger, which caused the German battlecruisers to fall back upon the battleships and battlecruisers of the main Hochseeflotte force. Perhaps inadvisedly, the British commander on the scene detached Queen Mary and Tiger to escort the damaged Australia to Rosyth while the British battleships pursued the German battlecruisers towards the main Hochseeflotte force.

As the Hochseeflotte's Scout Force regrouped behind the German battle line, the battleships Zahringen, Pommern, Hannover, Deutschland, Posen, Weissenburg, Wettin, and Schwaben and the battlecruiser Derfflinger, the Mackensen-class battlecruisers Furst Bismarck, Mackensen, and Graf Spee, and the Lutzow-class battlecruisers Lutzow and Hindenburg began exchanging fire with the British battleships, which soon began withdrawing to the northeast, pursued by the German battle line while the Hochseeflotte's Scout Force raced to overtake and cut off the British battle line and the treaty battleships Goliath and Albion, badly damaged by 16" shells, fell behind and were sunk, but the Hochseeflotte terminated its pursuit after several ships were struck by British torpedoes. No German ships were sunk, but several - the battleship Zahringen, the battlecruiser Graudenz, and the second class cruiser Hertha were heavily damaged.

In July, the American Valley Forge-class battlecruiser Guam was sunk in action with the British battlecruiser Cumberland, and three British second class cruisers ran amok in the Heligoland Bight, chasing a pair of Hela-class third class cruisers into port and then wreaking havoc upon the ships of the coastal patrol, sinking no fewer than 17 minesweepers and two coasters in four hours. The German submarine command, however, avenged the destruction of these ships, when U-6, one of just six U-boats then remaining in service, torpedoed and sank the cruiser Phoebe.

August passed with little incident but for the Hela-class third class cruiser Niobe encountering and escaping the British battlecruiser Drake in the mid-Atlantic, but on 10 September this relative quiet was shattered when a British force composed of the battlecruisers Australia, Euryalus, and Drake, the Repulse-class battlecruisers Repulse and Antrim, the battleship Royal Oak, and the Howe-class battleship Bulwark entered the Heligoland Bight, where they encountered the Zahringen-class battleships Zahringen, Hessen, and Schwaben, the Pommern-class battleship Weissenburg, and the Hannover-class battleship Deutschland, and the Mackensen-class battlecruisers Mackensen, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and Graf Spee, which were soon joined by the Blucher-class battlecruisers Blucher and Moltke, operating nearby. In a day-long engagement which ranged from near Heligoland to the coast of the Netherlands, all five British battlecruisers and the aging battleship Bulwark were sunk, while Royal Oak escaped with the destruction of its two aftermost turrets. The second class cruiser Prinz Heinrich was sunk during the engagement while the battleship Hessen, the battlecruiser Blucher, and the second class cruiser Amazone were heavily damaged.

The Sixth Battle of Jutland saw the destruction of the Ariadne-class battlecruiser Bedford and the Drake-class battlecruiser Monmouth while the battleship Ramillies and the battlecruiser Cornwall limped back to Britain heavily damaged, with no comparable loss inflicted upon the Hochseeflotte. German fortunes were to sour the next month, however, when in foul weather on the late afternoon of 27 November elements of the British Home Fleet and German Hochseeflotte encountered one another in the Seventh Battle of Jutland. The Hochseeflotte's Scout Force, the Lutzow-class battlecruisers Hindenburg and Lutzow and the Mackensen-class battlecruisers Mackensen, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and Furst Bismarck, ran into the British battle line, and in a brief exchange of fire at under 5000 yards the battlecruiser Hindenburg was sunk while its sistership Lutzow was severely damaged. Receiving the reports of the Scout Force's battlecruisers, the Main Force commander ordered his battleships to turn for port but detached his battlecruisers - the Lutzow-class Seydlitz, the Blucher-class Moltke, and the Derfflinger-class Derfflinger, Rostock, and Graudenz - to go to the aid of the Scout Force. While these five battlecruisers did not find the Scout Force in the heavy rain, they did encounter another part of the British force, again at close range, torpedoing and sinking the battlecruiser Cumberland and the Ariadne-class battlecruiser Bacchante without sustaining any serious damage. Due to this success, the Main Force commander escaped reprimand for unnecessarily hazarding his battlecruisers despite his caution with the battleships. The German battleships did not escape the engagement entirely unscathed, however, for the battleships Deutschland and Posen collided while entering port at Emden, suffering sufficient damage that each would require a month in shipyard hands before being ready to return to service.

For the Hochseeflotte, December 1932 and January 1933 passed with just a few engagements between cruisers, with a pair of third class cruisers damaging a British second class cruiser in an engagement off the African coast in December and another third class cruiser being sunk by a British second class cruiser in the Celtic Sea in January. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, January saw ships of the US and Royal Canadian Navies clash near Nova Scotia, during which the Indiana-class treaty battleship USS Arizona was sunk.

On 28 February 1933, another British force entered the Heligoland Bight - the recently-commissioned battleship Venerable, the battlecruiser Empress of India, and the Cumberland-class battlecruiser Carnarvon, with the Drake-class battlecruiser Berwick and the Repulse-class battlecruiser Hampshire operating nearby in support. The force centered on Venerable encountered three German battlecruisers, and Venerable was soon withdrawing with its two forward turrets destroyed while Empress of India and Carnarvon, soon joined by Berwick and Hampshire, covered it. The three German battlecruisers were soon joined by two more battlecruisers and six battleships sortied from Helgoland and briefly searched for Venerable to the west while the newly-arrived ships continued the engagement with the British battlecruisers, but were recalled to cut off the retreat of the British battlecruisers as the British ships began withdrawing before the slower German battleships. All four British battlecruisers were sunk, but Venerable escaped destruction and eventually made its way across the North Sea to Rosyth. The battlecruiser Graf Spee, sitting low in the water due to damage suffered during the battle, ran aground while returning to the anchorage at Helgoland after the engagement and was stuck fast for more than a week, and the Amazone-class second class cruiser Medusa was seriously damaged during the pursuit of the British battlecruisers.

The British, not yet ready to abandon attacks on German shipping in the Heligoland Bight as a bad idea, tried again on 26 March, setting the stage for the last major battle of the war. The battleship Royal Sovereign, at the head of a force composed of the Cumberland-class battlecruiser Lancaster, the Drake-class battlecruiser Amphitrite, and the treaty battlecruiser Lion encountered the Mackensen-class battlecruisers Mackensen, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, Graf Spee, and Furst Bismarck and the Hannover-class battleships Hannover and Deutschland near Emden, and after a six-hour engagement all five British capital ships were sunk while the German battlecruiser Furst Bismarck was heavily damaged.

No major warship of the Kaiserliche Marine would put to sea again for the remainder of the war, however, for political machinations by the Deutsches Heer would result in a naval budget crisis, diverting naval funds to outfit and transport an expeditionary force to support an American offensive to deny Britain its fleet bases in Canada. This offensive would prove very successful at threatening the British position in Canada, but as the war would end in July, just as the offensive achieved its breakthroughs, nothing really came of it. At the peace table, Germany would reclaim Samoa, ceded to Britain in the First Anglo-German War, while the United States and Italy would content themselves with reparations. Overall, the Second Anglo-German War was a devastating defeat for the Royal Navy, which lost four battleships and eighteen battlecruisers over the fourteen-month war, temporarily reducing its strength to five battleships and thirteen battlecruisers - less than the Italian Regia Marina or the Japanese Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun and on par with the French Marine Nationale. Perhaps even more humiliating for the Royal Navy, only three capital ships - the German Hindenburg and the American Guam and Arizona - were lost by its enemies during the war. Two days after the end of the war, German agents acquired blueprints for the British battleship Renown.

With the end of the war, Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg stepped down as Chancellor of Germany, citing poor health, and post-war budget cuts would force the Kaiserliche Marine to suspend work on the three new battleships of the Ostfriesland class as well as the twelve additional V29-class torpedo boats laid down during the war, but within a year work on all twelve torpedo boats and the three battleships would be resumed. A revolution would break out in Kamchatka in April 1934, successfully throwing off Italian rule in March of 1935. The retired Chancellor von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and, deprived of his moderating influence, the ultranationalists and militarists of the far right began pushing for a program of German expansion at the expense of weaker, 'degenerate,' and 'culturally-inferior' powers such as France - or even Germany's longtime ally Italy - to secure Germany the laurels due to her military might, criticizing the government for its failure to do so at the end of the Second Anglo-German War, causing much concern among Germany's neighboring states, especially when, after the 1935 elections, the ultranationalist and militarist parties of the far right became collectively the largest minority in the Reichstag.

Out-of-'character' notes:

A relatively short and very successful war, but ending with just a four-point treaty was a bit disappointing.

Sorry, no battle plots or image of the Ostfriesland-class battleships, but the battle plots for the fleet actions at Jutland and in the Heligoland Bight were mostly confused messes even when only looking at the flagship traces, and I haven't felt like making the profile image for Ostfriesland yet.

[garrisonchisholm]

An excellent recounting as usual, and I am interested to see just how fast the English economy can restore the navy.

For curiosities' sake, What does the Navy think of the domestic political shift?

[aeson]

The Ostfriesland-class battleship profile image:

Not sure I like having so many masts, and I pity anyone assigned to the mast between the funnels, but at least for now that's what I'm going with.

Aug 31, 2018 14:23:50 GMT -6 garrisonchisholm said:

I am interested to see just how fast the English economy can restore the navy.

Britain has completed two battleships since the end of the war and has three more battleships and three battlecruisers under construction, though one of the battleships and I think also one of the battlecruisers are leftovers from the wartime construction program. I wouldn't be too surprised if the Royal Navy was back up to about 40 capital ships by the early-1940s, especially if their naval budget remains slightly in excess of that of the United States.

Almanac information, if you're curious:

For curiosities' sake, What does the Navy think of the domestic political shift?

The Kaiserliche Marine, while officially disinterested in domestic politics, generally leans center-right and hawkish, and is supportive of the ultranationalists' and militarists' military - especially naval - programs, but wary of the political extremism which accompanies them. As to German colonialism, the Navy is supportive of the movement inasmuch as it generates support for the Navy, but the Kaiserliche Marine's position on colonial policy remains 'Europe First,' as it recognizes - but is not inclined to admit - that the fleet was built almost exclusively for operations in home waters and would have difficulty projecting power beyond the North Atlantic even were colonies acquired which could serve as refueling bases in time of war.

[aeson]

In September 1935, two Frenchmen were caught breaking into the submarine base at Kiel, where all two of the Kaiserliche Marine's massive submarine fleet were based. Unfortunately, reporters caught wind of this occurrence and rapidly turned the incident into the international scandal of the year, compelling the German government to send a note of protest to France which, in an attempt to leaven the situation with humor, called the attempted break-in the greatest French crime after escargot. The people and government of France, alas, took umbrage at the wording of the note, and the French government responded with an ultimatum demanding the immediate release of their citizens and that the Kaiser and the Chancellor take the time to try escargot before calling it a criminal affront to gourmet cooking. The Kaiser and the Chancellor, naturally, accepted the invitation to dine at the French Embassy in Berlin so as to smooth things over, but unfortunately the Chancellor fell ill after sampling the escargot and became convinced that the French had tried to poison him. Thus, as the Chancellor recovered in the hospital, the German government rejected the remaining terms of the French ultimatum and called French diplomacy "all noise and no substance - much like champagne." Now mortally insulted by this renewed affront to French culinary expertise, the French government issued a declaration of war the next day. Caught off guard by what each had presumed was some silly nonsense which wouldn't go anywhere, the French and German armies and navies took time to mobilize. By mutual agreement, the armies would not fight in Europe, instead allowing private citizens to wage a war of words at the Franco-German border, trading increasingly-creative insults regarding one another's cuisine, but the navies would not be so fortunate as to be permitted to wage such a war.

Nevertheless, on the 28th of September, the Kaiserliche Marine launched its first offensive action of the war, sending the third class cruisers Dresden and Niobe to raid French coastal shipping near La Rochelle. These two small cruisers sank a 3,000t and a 900t coaster before being engaged by the French Troude-class second class cruisers Galilee and Alger. In a brief exchange of gunfire, Galilee was heavily and Dresden moderately damaged while Alger and Niobe each suffered only light damage, and then the light German cruisers broke away from the heavier French ships, withdrawing to the north-northeast at high speed. The French cruisers pursued for a time, but gave up the chase as they passed north of Saint Nazaire. Encouraged by this success, the Admiralstab sent Dresden and Niobe back just under two weeks later, on the 11th of October, and the two third class cruisers sank another 3,000t coaster as well as a small patrol boat, but were once again forced to withdraw by the arrival of French warships - this time just the cruiser Alger, which heavily damaged Dresden in a brief exchange of gunfire but was unable to sink the small German cruiser as Niobe screened Dresden's withdrawal. Niobe and Alger continued the action for a time, but broke off the engagement with each having inflicted only light damage upon the other. October also saw the commissioning of the battleship Ostfriesland and the inauspicious beginnings of the French submarine campaign, with ten German merchant ships being sunk that month for the loss of eight French submarines.

On the night of the 9th of November, the German Regensburg-class battlecruisers Regensburg and Weisbaden and the Mackensen-class battlecruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, accompanied by the first class cruiser Gneisenau and the third class cruiser Dresden passed south through the English Channel for a raid into the Bay of Biscay. As the force passed Cherbourg, Gneisenau struck a mine and was detached to make its way back to Emden while the battlecruisers and Dresden continued on. Unfortunately, Gneisenau failed to reach Emden and is thought to have been sunk - possibly by internal explosion, a second mine strike, or progressive flooding - somewhere near Calais, though as the wreck has not been found and no survivors of the sinking were recovered, the cause of loss may never be firmly established. Despite the loss of Gneisenau, the battlecruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich and a screening force of four destroyers was detached from the main German force as the ships passed south of Brest according to plan, and on the tenth the two groups of ships hunted for French warships in the Bay of Biscay despite poor weather. Regensburg and Weisbaden encountered the French Troude-class second class cruisers Troude and Lalande at midday and sank both, but, blinded by rain, failed to sight the French battlecruisers Desaix and Dupleix a short distance to the west, and the German capital ships retired north to the Channel where they were rejoined by Prinz Eitel Friedrich, which had not found any French ships to prey upon.

Continuing merchant losses to French submarines - four in November and eight in the first half of December - prompted the Kaiserliche Marine to send most of the Hochseeflotte - seven battleships (the Pommern-class Weissenburg, Wettin, and Pommern, the Hannover-class Deutschland, Hannover, and Posen, and Zahringen) and five battlecruisers (the Blucher-class Blucher, Moltke, and Thetis, attached to the Main Force, and the Regensburg-class Weisbaden and Regensburg as a heavy Scout Force) - to attack the fleet base at Saint Nazaire in mid-December, setting the stage for the largest surface action of the war when, on the 17th of December, this force encountered five French battlecruisers (the Lille-class treaty battlecruisers Lille, Gueydon, and Montcalm, and the superdreadnought battlecruisers Dupleix and Nantes of the eponymous classes) and the Richelieu-class battlecruisers Richelieu and Trident. Battle was joined just after 10 AM, when the battlecruisers of the French and German Scout Forces sighted one another, and the Main Forces of each hurried to join the engagement. The French Main Force arrived somewhat sooner, compelling the German Scout Force to turn to the south, but the arrival of the main German force soon put the French ships to flight, and the German ships pursued the French ships all the way to Brest, sinking the treaty battlecruisers Lille and Gueydon in early stages of the pursuit, the superdreadnought battlecruiser Dupleix as it passed Ile de Sein, and the battleship Richelieu and second class cruiser Jean Bart just outside Brest. Even though the French submarine Brumaire put a torpedo into the battleship Deutschland as the Hochseeflotte retired through the English Channel, no German warships were lost in the engagement and only one, the second class cruiser Freya, was heavily damaged.

1936 opened with a bit of a disaster of German making, when French submarines attacked a convoy of six merchants escorted by the third class cruiser Hamburg and sank all seven ships as they foolishly passed into the English Channel rather than taking the safer northerly route around Great Britain in early January. This was, however, the only success of the French submarine campaign for the month, and on the 29th the Kaiserliche Marine took a measure of revenge when on the far side of the world the Undine-class third class cruisers Bremen and Konigsberg intercepted and sank the Du Chayla-class scout cruiser Cassard near the Ebeling Reef, and this victory was announced on the 31st at the keel-laying ceremony for the new battleship Elsass.

February passed with little incident despite the Mackensen-class battlecruisers Furst Bismarck and Mackensen being sent into the Bay of Biscay to raid shipping and bombard Saint Nazaire - a disappointing raid, all told, for only two 900t coasters were sunk while a 4" coastal battery destroyed in the bombardment. March brought with it a mix of setbacks and successes, for seven French submarines were sunk for the loss of only eight merchant ships, but the battlecruiser Weisbaden was put into the yards for two months after a French submarine torpedoed it in the Heligoland Bight and on the 30th the Nymphe-class third class cruiser Leipzig was sunk near Singapore by the Forbin-class second class cruiser Surcouf. April sees more success on the surface and less success against the French submarines, for the battlecruiser Thetis intercepted and sank the French scout cruiser Du Chayla on the 8th, but the battlecruiser Derfflinger was put into the yards for three months by a French submarine's torpedoes and only two French submarines were sunk for the loss of five merchants. French submarine activity lessened in May, with only two merchants being sunk and no warships being attacked, and on the 21st the Undine-class third class cruiser Magdeburg avenged Leipzig when it intercepted and sank Surcouf off New Caledonia.

By July, wearying of the continued exchange of insults across the border and concerned by their declining creativity, the French and German governments opened peace negotiations, but even as the peace conference was ongoing the war at sea was allowed to continue, with the second class cruiser Roon sinking the second class cruiser Chateurenault off Brest on 7 July, the second class cruiser Amazone being sunk by a mine in the English Channel on 1 August, a large liner being sunk by a French submarine on 17 September, and the Pascal-class scout cruiser D'Assas becoming the last ship sunk during the war when it was intercepted by the second class cruiser Hertha off Brest on the 24th. October opened with the Deutsches Heer securing funds from the Navy for a new campaign of insults and closed with the signing of a peace treaty in which France surrendered many of its African colonies - Senegal, Middle Congo, and Madagascar - to the German Empire while the US claimed a protectorate over the Caucasian States.

Other ships mentioned:

[garrisonchisholm]

Sept 6, 2018 13:44:01 GMT -6 aeson said:

where all two of the Kaiserliche Marine's massive submarine fleet were based.

This caused me to spray a mouth full of coffee over my monitor at work.  *shakes fist*

You need a 'Caution, Catastrophically Dry Humor may be included"  sign.

[aeson]

Hey, the Kaiserliche Marine's submarine arm was the envy of the world - it had the highest proportion of medium-range submarines of any service in the world: 100%. Now, of course, it's even better, being simultaneously 100% medium-range, 100% minelaying, and 100% coastal submarines, and so therefore all the more to be envied (taking the position that 0 of 0 is 100% rather than ill-defined).

An interbellum update:

In January 1937, the Reichstag took note of the British naval rearmament program, and in a public hearing the Secretary of State of the Reichsmarineamt denounced British Imperial policy and naval rearmament as a threat to world peace, provoking British protests. The British felt themselves further provoked when the recently-commissioned battleship Ostfriesland was sent to bombard Nouadhibou after a revolution in Mauritania threatened German nationals and corporate holdings in neighboring Senegal, and France and Italy both indicated that they were concerned by the credence that this action gave to the idea that the colonial ambitions expressed by the minority militarist and ultranationalist parties, which the French and the Italians see as threatening their own interests in Africa, were in line with the intentions of the government. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth - Ostfriesland and the accompanying transports were there to protect all Europeans in and around Mauritania, not to stage an incident which could be used as an excuse to seize control of an African state heavily influenced by the French Republic, so recently involved in war with the German Empire. Despite the tensions and anti-German sentiment stirred up by enemies abroad portraying the noble and enlightened German African policies in the most negative light possible, Italy and the United States sent delegations to Wilhelmshaven for an intra-allied convention to discuss the lessons of the recent war with France, and the American representatives went so far as to share technical information on their new battleship New Mexico, then under construction.

Sadly, the feelings of inter-allied amity would not long survive, for the Italian government - without consulting its allies - launched an invasion of Ethiopia as the conference concluded, having mistaken American disinterest in African affairs for tacit approval of a free hand with regards to African policy and having failed to foresee that its failure to support German African policy coupled with German disinterest in becoming embroiled in another diplomatic brouhaha would rob Italy of German support for Italian African policy. Attempts were made behind closed doors to save the alliance, for Italy was the world's fourth-wealthiest power and the Regia Marina vied with the Kaiserliche Marine for the title of the world's second-most-powerful navy (the Royal Navy having not yet fully recovered from its defeat four years prior), but in June Italy formally withdrew from the alliance, citing as the primary cause Italian concerns over the German Empire's African policies and the failure of the German and American governments to support Italy's own African policies. Rising world tensions did, however, benefit the Kaiserliche Marine in one way - a new battlecruiser, Hindenburg, armed with six 15" guns of an improved model, was laid down in late June.

World peace would be disturbed the outbreak of an Irish rebellion in July, though this was for the most part ignored by all the Great Powers save for Great Britain, and by rumors of imminent war in the Balkans in November, which proved prescient when a gathering of prominent politicians from Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Serbia was attacked in early December by parties unknown but assumed to be affiliated with the decrepit Ottoman Empire. German opposition to military intervention in the affair by the Great Powers provoked the ire of the Italian, Russian, French and British governments, who all had designs upon the territories of the Ottoman Empire, but was met with approbation by the United States and a Japanese offer of mediation. Despite their disagreements, the Great Powers did not permit this latest bout of Balkan unruliness disturb them unduly, and the affairs of these minor powers soon drifted off the world stage - though not so soon that the German Chancellor could avoid mistakenly accusing the United States of stirring up trouble in the Balkans when he had meant to accuse Great Britain of doing so to divert attention from its rearmament programs.

Late in January 1938, a second Hindenburg-class battlecruiser, Alfred von Tirpitz, was laid down, and the next month the British declared the Irish rebellion defeated. A week later the Prime Ministers of Britain and Italy met in Rome to announce the formation of an Anglo-Italian alliance to safeguard the world against German 'aggression.' The Anglo-Italian detente prompted France to send the Chanzy-class first class cruiser Pothuau on a goodwill tour of the Baltic, sending it first to Wilhelmshaven after receiving the German government's permission for it to become the first French warship to transit the Kaiser Wilhelm (Kiel or Nord-Ostsee) Canal.

Criminal cartels seized power in Sardinia and rebelled against the Italian government in May, prompting the German government to offer the assistance of 'volunteers' from the Deutsches Heer in putting down the criminal insurrection. As was hoped, this aid, coupled with lingering sentiment for the old alliances, created fissures in the Anglo-Italian detente, but Foreign Office fumbling and press coverage of a fleet exercise in which the Hochseeflotte simulated an attack on a fleet base bearing striking similarities to Taranto lead to the Italian and British Prime Ministers reaffirming the Anglo-Italian alliance while meeting in London in July. Also in July, oil was discovered in Middle Congo, leading to an oil boom in that German colony and prompting the Admiralstab to review the fleet's ability to protect German trade and overseas possessions. That review initially lead to the laying down of a pair of new third class cruisers, Hamburg and Leipzig, modeled on the Nymphe class in addition to the third Hindenburg-class battlecruiser, Leo von Caprivi, in August.

1939 opened with a disarmaments conference in the Hague, but British refusal to give up their rearmament program, aided by German subterfuge designed to prevent the signing away of the three Hindenburg-class battlecruisers and the final two Elsass-class battleships, precluded the possibility of any binding treaties resulting from the conference. In April, after discussing concessions with Great Britain to ease relations, four more Hamburg-class third class cruisers were laid down, followed in May by Koblentz and Bonn, the first second class cruisers designed with overseas service in mind, and in June by two more - Aachen and Monchengladbach.

Out-of-'character' notes:

I am aware that Mauritania was historically integrated by conquest into the French Empire between about 1901 and 1912, but in this timeline it was not.

I can't say that I find New Mexico to be all that impressive. It's faster, smaller, and at least as heavily-armed as any of my own ships (at least insofar as the main battery armament goes), but the armor's very light and I can't help but feel that a tertiary battery of a dozen 3" guns is largely a waste of space at this stage of the game. It's also the only ship of its class; most of the other American battleships are the more 'normal' (for this stage of the game) 10-12x16" ~40,000t ships with speeds closer to 27 knots.

[aeson]

In July of 1939, a diplomatic crisis erupted between the US and Great Britain when some pigs escaped from a farm in Canada, damaged properties south of the border, and were shot to prevent further destruction. The German government issued a statement indicating that they would back the American government fully in the dispute, and the aging Kaiser Wilhelm II demonstrated that he remained fully capable of responding to even the most unexpected of circumstances in a balanced and well-reasoned manner when on 1 August he sent his nephew King Edward VIII an ultimatum demanding that the British government pay one hundred million pounds in damages to the US government within 24 hours or face war with Germany. The British government dismissed this eminently reasonable demand as a joke, and were shocked when the nationalists and militarists in the Reichstag forced through a declaration of war 'to protect the national honor' after no response was received to the Kaiser's ultimatum on 2 August. The next day, the Cordelia-class second class cruiser HMS Persian and four destroyers encountered the Nymphe-class third class cruiser SMS Frauenlob mining shipping lanes peacefully cruising in the Celtic Sea and sank the smaller German cruiser without provocation, drowning out the last voices of reason calmer heads dishonorable fools in the Reichstag who sought a way to back down from this unnecessary and ill-justified entirely-merited war to protect American interests and German national honor from invidious British perfidy. For the remainder of August, the American and Italian governments sought to bring about a negotiated settlement to end the conflict, but the self-evident righteousness of the German declaration of war and Italian untrustworthiness demonstrated by their forsaking of the alliance with the US and Germany for an alliance with Great Britain lead to the abandonment of these efforts by the end of the month and the formal entry of both powers into the war on 3 September.

Recognizing the need for a heavier ship for service in the colonies, the first class cruiser Paul Behncke was laid down on 31 August, followed by Eduard von Capelle and Friedrich von Hollmann in September, Karl Eduard Heusner in October, and Alexander von Monts in December. Meanwhile, the war continued at sea, albeit relatively quietly. The Nymphe-class third class cruiser Pillau was sunk off New Caledonia by the British first class cruiser Devonshire on 12 September, three German destroyers sank two 3,000t and two 900t merchants in the Celtic Sea on 6 October, and the Nymphe-class cruiser Karlsruhe sank the Italian Bari-class second class cruiser La Spezia near Cape Verde on 18 December.

On 7 January, the Nymphe-class third class cruiser Breslau reported that it had evaded attack by an Italian Basilicata-class battlecruiser the day before while cruising off the Congolese coast. While the report was received with much skepticism at the Admiralstab at the time, postwar research into Italian records indicates that the Basilicata-class battlecruiser Carlo Alberto was in fact cruising in the area at the time and had logged the sighting of a suspected German cruiser. Two days later, on 9 January, the Kaiserliche Marine and the German Foreign Office became embroiled in a dispute over whether or not to grant an Irish revolutionary caught in Germany by the outbreak of war passage to Great Britain, with the Foreign Office pressing for his insertion into the British Isles and the Kaiserliche Marine adamantly refusing to admit any such revolutionary onto its ships. In the midst of this dispute, the Royal Navy suffered an embarrassment before the world when the first class cruiser Aboukir, lead ship of its class, drifted onto the coast near Puerto Capaz in Spanish Morocco and was found to have run out of fuel while passing from Malta to Gibraltar. When it was discovered that no fuel oil could be had locally and that no ships would be available for at least a week to bring fuel from the fleet bases at Gibraltar or Malta, the Spanish interned the British cruiser.

On 11 February, the British Home Fleet and German Hochseeflotte met in force at Jutland for the Eighth Battle of that name. The battlecruisers of the British Home Fleet and German Hochseeflotte's Scout Forces exchanged fire while the battleships steamed up, with the British ships arriving first and forcing the German Scout Force to withdraw slightly until the German battle line arrived, at which point it took up position slightly to the South and attempted to cut off the British retreat. Three British battlecruisers - the Indomitable-class HMS Indomitable and the New Zealand-class New Zealand and Incomparable - were sunk and a British battleship - HMS Venerable, only ship of her class - was heavily damaged during the engagement while no major German warship was more than moderately damaged despite the battleship SMS Hannover being torpedoed by the British coastal submarine E-62 while returning to port. Taking advantage of a temporary surge in naval influence due to this major victory, the Kaiserliche Marine secured funding from the Reichstag for a further three Paul Behncke-class first class cruisers - Maximillian Rogge, Albrecht von Stosch, and Ernst Karl August Klemens von Mann - to counter the British first class cruisers threatening German control of the seas in the colonial areas.

Apart from a seemingly-endless campaign against British and Italian submarines, the next several months pass without incident, until in May the British first class cruiser Devonshire was reportedly interned for lack of fuel in New Caledonia and the third class cruiser Hela engaged and sank the Italian Siracusa-class second class cruiser Genoa in an hour-long engagement off French Indochina. The next month, on 24 June, the Hertha-class second class cruiser Yorck and and the Amazone-class second class cruiser Medusa engaged the British Aboukir-class first class cruiser Hogue in the Irish Sea, with Medusa being sunk by Hogue and Hogue succumbing a short time later to cumulative damage from innumerable 6" hits while withdrawing before Yorck. As Yorck stopped to recover survivors from the two sinking cruisers, it was torpedoed by the British  coastal submarine E-70 but fortunately not sunk, though the attack compelled Yorck's captain to abandon the search and rescue efforts and instead see to the safety of his ship. Little over a month later, the newly-commissioned third class cruiser Hamburg, lead ship of its class, encountered the British Aboukir-class first class cruiser Roxburgh while on patrol in the Celtic Sea and was unable to escape the significantly-heavier British cruiser, but the favor was returned almost exactly a month later when on 28 August the Mackensen-class battlecruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich encountered Roxburgh passing into the North Sea to the south of Iceland and pursued the British cruiser almost to the Scottish coast before sinking it. Despite the approach of darkness, Prinz Eitel Friedrich's captain ordered his ship to stop to recover survivors, and was punished for his humanitarian impulses when a torpedo fired by the British submarine E-95 struck the battlecruiser abaft the No. 3 boiler room, inflicting serious damage but fortunately failing to sink the German warship. This and the earlier attack on Yorck prompted the Admiralstab to issue a standing order forbidding major warships from engaging in search-and-rescue operations.

The last two operations of the war, both German attempts to intercept and sink convoys in the Celtic Sea, were fought on 11 September and 22 November respectively. The first, a small operation involving the newly-commissioned third class cruiser Leipzig and a destroyer, proved successful despite Leipzig's inexperienced crew nearly losing a gunnery duel with the British armed merchant cruiser Nuceria, sinking three 3,000t and three 900t merchants out of an eight-ship convoy as well as the AMC Nuceria and a destroyer of the convoy's escort force, though the German destroyer was lost and Leipzig limped home at ten knots with a smoking ruin in place of its forward 5" turret. The second action was both more and less successful, for ten battleships of the Hochseeflotte failed to locate the British convoy - or its escort of eight battleships and a battlecruiser - in foul weather, but the battlecruisers Alfred von Tirpitz and Graf Spee encountered several British Calliope-class second class cruisers, sinking Calliope and heavily damaging Cleopatra in a brief exchange of fire before the British and German forces lost contact with one another in the rain.

The war ended in December 1940 with a negotiated peace in Ethiopia's independence was guaranteed and the US claimed a protectorate over the former Italian possessions of Somalia and Eritrea while German Africa was increased by the acquisition of Nigeria and Sierra Leone from Great Britain.

Most ship classes mentioned:

Out-of-'character' notes:

The engagement between Leipzig and Nuceria really had me concerned for a while; Leipzig was reduced to 13 knots by a hit at the start of the engagement and then went dead in the water in the middle of the convoy and just to the south of a cloud of British destroyers, and my own destroyer put a torpedo under (but fortunately not into) Leipzig's bow after missing the transports. Fortunately, Leipzig put its machinery back in order enough to make 8 knots and got under way before the British destroyers finished mine, finished a merchant a short ways to the north and limped away while the British destroyers apparently ignored it in favor of search-and-rescue operations.

Slightly disappointed that none of the Paul Behnckes made it out in time for the war, but it's also not too unexpected. I'm still somewhat hopeful that I'll be able to see one go up against a 10" CA before the game's over, though. Also debating if perhaps I should've gone for a 12" variant of the Deutschland type instead of keeping the 11" guns since my 11" guns are only Q0 while my 12" guns (and, for that matter, all my other guns aside from the 18") are Q1.

There's probably at most one more war in this game, so this will probably be wrapping up soon.

[garrisonchisholm]

I applaud your extremely silly great dedication to madness and humor reason and veracity in the telling of this tale.

[aeson]

1941 passed with little of note, save for the death of Kaiser Wilhelm II on 4 June. To mark his passing, and the coronation of his son, Kaiser Wilhelm III, the Hochseeflotte was assembled in Wilhelmshaven and the great naval powers were invited to send ships. The British ships - the battlecruiser Queen Mary and the three first class cruisers of the Amphitrite class, Amphitrite, Bacchante, and Monmouth, all under a year old - caught the attention of the press, particularly as Germany and Great Britain had so recently been at war, but when asked for comment the Port Admiral at Wilhelmshaven merely stated that the Kaiserliche Marine was happy to host such fine ships and their disciplined crews. Rounding out the year, the first class cruiser Paul Behncke was commissioned and fired its guns in anger for the first time two months later, when it lead a cruiser squadron to bombard the port of Luanda in Angola after a revolutionary government took over that nation and began threatening German interests in the Congo and Southwest Africa.

Continuing unrest in Angola in 1942 produced tensions between Great Britain and Germany when the British government accused the German Foreign Office and Kaiserliche Marine of conspiring to meddle in and topple the government of Angola so as to create a pretext to annex the African country to Germany's African empire, and by May Germany and Great Britain were again at war. With wartime funding, the Kaiserliche Marine laid down the battleships Preussen, Kaiserin, and Grosser Kurfurst, and while the war was destined to be brief work on the three battleships would continue uninterrupted until their completion in 1944.

The Anglo-German War of 1942 lasted from May until August and saw but three naval engagements - a clash off Terschelling between a German cruiser patrolling the German Bight and British destroyers attempting to raid it, and two cruiser engagements near Angola. Two British and one German destroyers were sunk in the war, and the British first class cruiser Bacchante, the British second class cruiser Thetis, and the German third class cruisers Bonn, Coln, and Konigsberg were damaged enough to require time in the yards, but despite this relative inactivity the overwhelming superiority of the Kaiserliche Marine and lingering exhaustion from the last war lead to Great Britain accepting a peace treaty by which Kenya was annexed to the German Empire, Guyana became a German protectorate, and Malta was leased for 99 years to the United States. Some historians believe that the British surrender was hastened by an incident in July which greatly embarrassed the Royal Navy and outraged the British public and much of the world - a British training submarine was accidentally given live torpedoes for a training exercise in which it was to conduct an attack against a British convoy bound for Liverpool, conducted a flawless attack, and sank two large British liners which had been safely shepherded through the German blockade when they were less than 100 miles from Liverpool.

In 1943, the German government approves the sale of weaponry, light vehicles, and patrol craft to Guyana as part of a modernization program for the new German protectorate's military, naval, and security forces. The US, unfortunately, is slightly irritated by this, which it sees as in contravention of the Monroe Doctrine, and as such talks to renew the alliance in November fail. Meanwhile, Reichstag elections usher in a new government, and with it a new State Secretary of the Naval Office, who, noting the increasing colonial commitments of the Kaiserliche Marine, pushed through a program to build ten additional third class cruisers to supplement the colonial fleet.

The Kaiserliche Marine laid down a new battlecruiser, Freiburg, in February, though the second of the class was delayed until May by disputes over whether to name the ship Prinz Adalbert in honor of the previous ships of that name or Kaiser Wilhelm II in honor of the late Emperor; the dispute was ended when the Admiralstab, fed up with what it considered pointless bickering over the naming of the vessel, ordered it as Prinz Adalbert and promised the Reichstag that the next class of German battleships would be named in honor of the late Kaiser Wilhelm II. The German first class cruiser Karl Eduard Heusner ported at Hong Kong from 11 to 23 March 1945 on a goodwill visit and while there hosted several prominent British dignitaries. Unfortunately, the British dignitaries made some ill-considered remarks about the Chinese, which leaked to the press and caused a bit of a scandal, which escalated to a minor diplomatic incident after the British government accused the captain of Karl Eduard Heusner of leaking the dignitaries' statements to the local press. The incident was soon forgotten, however, when an uprising in China compelled the British, French, and German governments to cooperate to help stabilize the region - for humanitarian reasons, of course, and not at all because the rebellion threatened their interests and holdings in China. Late in the year, as the fighting in China was wrapping up and after the three Preussen-class battleships commissioned, eight second class cruisers of the new Minden class - essentially a repeat of the earlier Koblentz class, though with some minor alterations and improvements based on service experience - were laid down.

1946 opened with a scandal involving Japanese dignitaries as a result of some impropriety during a party on the first class cruiser Karl Eduard Heusner during its visit to Tokyo in January, but the story was largely suppressed at the connivance of the admiral commanding the German Far East Squadron. In February, the Chancellor, having noted the increasing strength of the Royal Navy, informed the Admiralstab that three new battleships were required for reasons of national prestige, and the Reichsmarineamt began the process of designing the ships, the Kaiser Wilhelm II class. The battleships Kaiser Wilhelm II and Brandenburg, along with a third Freiburg-class battlecruiser (Ingolstadt), were laid down in July, and a third Kaiser Wilhelm II-class battleship, Kaiser Friedrich III, followed in October. The Kaiserliche Marine followed these capital ships with another program of heavy ships for the colonies when in February 1947 the first class cruisers Passau, Bamburg, and Heidelburg - largely repeats of the earlier Paul Behncke class, but using a superior 11" gun of French design - were laid down.

After yet more German interference another rebellion in Angola, the first class cruiser Paul Behncke and several third class cruisers of the colonial fleet were sent to bombard Luanda again, prompting Russia to criticize Germany's "predatory" behavior towards African states. This, of course, was completely unfair and unmerited, and prompted the German government to issue a condemnation of Russian policy in Asia while the Kaiserliche Marine staged a public shooting competition in which several targets bearing uncanny and completely-unintentional resemblances to Russian warships destroyed. In June, the German government had opportunity to demonstrate its goodwill to the world when it sent a peacekeeping mission to East Timor, where a colonial rebellion had completely overwhelmed Portuguese authorities, but, unfortunately, the situation spiraled out of control, and the German mission was compelled to withdraw from the territory by the end of the month. The Russian government, seemingly intent on stirring up trouble, protested this humanitarian mission, calling it blatant and predatory colonialism at the expense of weaker European powers, and a diplomatic feud simmered between Germany and Russia throughout July before erupting into open war in August.

The Kaiserliche Marine unfortunately failed to cover itself in glory in the Russo-German War of 1947-1949. The only surface action to be fought in 1947 saw the Undine-class third class cruiser Bremen sunk by the Rossiya-class first class cruiser Oleg while the Admiralstab fumed impotently against the Russian Navy's unwillingness to meet the Hochseeflotte in battle. Possibly this contributed to the disaster which befell the Kaiserliche Marine in January of 1948, when the Hindenburg-class battlecruisers Hindenburg and Leo von Caprivi engaged the Russian battlecruisers Korfu of the Navarin class and Kronshtadt of the eponymous class and the Tsesarevhich-class battleship Ioann Zlatoust near Gotland on the 22nd. Shortly after turning to the northeast to close with the Russian battlecruisers, the battlecruiser Leo von Caprivi was struck by a 16" shell which penetrated to the machinery spaces and knocked out all electrical power on the ship, and soon thereafter Hindenburg found its ability to maneuver constrained by proximity to the island of Gotland. Both German battlecruisers were sunk while the Russian capital ships escaped largely unharmed. The Kaiserliche Marine suffered another defeat off Gotland the next month, when the Amazone-class second class cruiser Ariadne and the Hertha-class second class cruiser Yorck were sunk in an engagement with the Russian Vityaz-class first class cruiser Latnik, the second class cruisers Oprichnik, and the scout cruiser Novik of the eponymous classes, though as Oprichnik was sunk and Novik severely damaged this was not considered to be as serious a setback for the Kaiserliche Marine. Following these defeats, the Deutsches Heer rubbed salt in the Kaiserliche Marine's wounds by announcing that offensives into the Baltic States had thus far proven completely successful without giving any credit to the cruiser forces engaged in providing naval gunfire support to the advancing troops.

Late in March 1948, the Reichstag approved funds for two new battlecruisers to replace Hindenburg and Leo von Caprivi, lost two months earlier, and the Admiralstab elected to name both after the ships that they were to replace. Two weeks later, in April, the battlecruiser Prinz Adalbert was torpedoed while returning to port after completing its acceptance trials and had to be returned to the dockyard for months of repair work, joined a day later by the battleship Hannover which struck a mine while patrolling the North Sea near the mouth of the Skaggerak. A third Leo von Caprivi-class battlecruiser, Friedrich Barbarossa, was laid down in May when a German shipyard offered to build it at reduced cost to avoid going into bankruptcy. August brought with it another defeat for the Kaiserliche Marine when the 38-year-old second class cruiser Roon was sunk by the Russian first class cruiser Latnik. The Kaiserliche Marine's first significant success in the war came two months later, when the 30-year-old Prinz Heinrich-class second class cruiser Friedrich Carl sank the second class cruiser Pamyat Merkuriya of the selfsame class, but this was followed by another bout of misfortune when the battlecruiser Prinz Adalbert, just out of dockyard hands after being torpedoed while returning from its acceptance trials, struck a drifting mine as it left drydock and had to be sent right back in. The mood at the Admiralstab was not helped when the Army announced continuing successes in winter operations in the Baltic States.

The battleships Kaiser Wilhelm II and Brandenburg and the battlecruiser Ingolstadt commissioned in January, and on the 14th of that month the Kaiserliche Marine won a qualified victory when the Prinz Heinrich-class second class cruiser Friedrich Carl and the Hertha-class second class cruiser Scharnhorst engaged the Rossiya-class first class cruiser Varyag and the Novik-class second class cruiser Novik, sinking Novik at the cost of moderate damage to Friedrich Carl. February and almost all of March passed without action, though two more Leo von Caprivi-class battlecruisers - Friedrich der Grosse and Kaiser Wilhelm I (which of course could not possibly be confused with the battleship Kaiser Wilhelm II) - and the new battleships Schleswig-Holstein and Westfalen were laid down. March ended with a minor victory for the Kaiserliche Marine when on the 31st several German destroyers penetrated the Gulf of Riga to attack Russian ships attempting to supply the besieged port city of Riga and sank a 3,000t and a 900t merchant ship as well as two patrolling Russian destroyers without loss and put a Russian revolutionary ashore to southeast of the Estonian city of Parnu.

The Kaiserliche Marine would see a string of successes for the last three months of the war, with the Russian first class cruiser Vityaz being intercepted and sunk by the battlecruiser Derfflinger on the 17th of April, the Kaliakriya-class battlecruisers Kaliakriya and Ochakov being sunk in the German Bight by the Hindenburg-class battlecruiser Alfred von Tirpitz, the battlecruiser Mackensen of the selfsame class, and the Freiburg-class battlecruiser Ingolstadt on the 21st of May, and the Pamyat Merkuriya-class second class cruiser Rynda being sukn by the Roon-class second class cruiser Berlin on the 24th of June. The Russian government collapsed at the end of the month and the new General Secretary, appointed by the Tsar with a mandate to end the war, ceded the Baltic States to the German Empire to secure the peace.

After the end of the war, budget cuts and a new government focused on social reform forced the Kaiserliche Marine to suspend work on the three Schlesweig-Holstein-class battleships and four of the five Leo von Caprivi-class battlecruisers. While work on the battleships was resumed in the early 1950s and all three were commissioned by 1955, only one of the Leo von Caprivi-class batltecruisers, Friedrich Barbarossa, would be completed as designed; the other four, after having languished on the slipways in administrative limbo for five years, were converted into the Kaiserliche Marine's first aircraft carriers and entered service in the late 1950s and early 1960s, though as Leo von Caprivi and Hindenburg were already relatively complete by the time that work on them had been suspended their conversions were less extensive than the conversions given to Friedrich der Grosse and Kaiser Wilhelm I and proved unsatisfactory in service.

Ships mentioned:

End-of-game summary screens, plus map and almanac data:

[garrisonchisholm]

Bravo aeson , a clinical- and occasionally whimsical- tale.

A definite must for the AAR Preservation thread.