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Post by babylon218 on May 10, 2017 14:45:49 GMT -6
I found 'Dreadnought' to be terrifically interesting because the focus is on personalities and politics. 'Castles of Steel' is informative but very dry... factual but without the 'zing' of the first book, so not nearly as readable. True, but I personally found Massie's detailed and thorough analysis of each engagement riveting from a tactical perspective, and very useful for understanding the subtleties of naval combat (I also recommend S. Woodward, One Hundred Days, for those interested in more modern naval combat as well).
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Post by cv10 on May 11, 2017 18:18:23 GMT -6
I found 'Dreadnought' to be terrifically interesting because the focus is on personalities and politics. 'Castles of Steel' is informative but very dry... factual but without the 'zing' of the first book, so not nearly as readable. I also recommend S. Woodward, One Hundred Days, for those interested in more modern naval combat as well I'd throw in Frank McLynn's Book on the Burma Campaign for those who want to take a break from the naval front. I throughly enjoyed it. He discusses a lot of the day-to-day problems of fighting in a jungle. David Hobbs's work The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy's Most Powerful Strike Force really does a good job of looking at British Naval Operations in the Indian and Pacific oceans, as well as immense effort required for the Royal Navy deploy so large a concentrated force so far from home (The fleet wasn't nearly as large as the U.S Pacific Fleet, but it was one of the largest and most modern British fleets ever concentrated during World War II).
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Post by director on May 11, 2017 21:13:47 GMT -6
Paul Halpern's 'A Naval History of World War I' is useful because it also deals with areas outside the North Sea. For WW2, I recommend:
Tameichi Hara, 'Japanese Destroyer Captain' Paul Dull, 'The Imperial Japanese Navy' John Campbell, 'Naval Weapons of World War Two'
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Post by oaktree on May 12, 2017 10:35:38 GMT -6
I found 'Dreadnought' to be terrifically interesting because the focus is on personalities and politics. 'Castles of Steel' is informative but very dry... factual but without the 'zing' of the first book, so not nearly as readable. What I really appreciated about _Castles of Steel_ over the more generic coverage I usually saw in books about WW1 is that it went into better coverage of the naval war beyond what usually gets mentioned; e.g. Dogger Bank, Jutland, U-boats, with perhaps a mention of Gallipoli since it got Churchill canned. A lot of complicated and intertwined strategic, tactical, and logistical factors usually get ignored, and Massie paid at least some attention to a lot of them.
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Post by cv10 on May 14, 2017 14:39:58 GMT -6
29 September, 1914 (Planning)
After the Battle of Dogger, Bank, both the Grand Fleet's battle-line and the Battlecruiser Force have been temporarily eliminated as effective fighting formations. At present, I have one operational battlecruiser (HMS Inflexible, which just arrived), 8 operational dreadnoughts, and5 operational pre-dreadnought battleships. I have 4 battlecruisers, 7 dreadnoughts, 1 pre-dreadnought, and numerous smaller ships under repair for a total of 47 ships in the repair yards. For the moment, I shall have to rely on my light forces to do a bit of heavy lifting.
Right now, the Germans have more Op. BBs than I do, but this will be rectified within a turn, maybe two, as a lot of the lightly damaged dreadnoughts need only a few weeks in the yard. However we did a number on their fleet as well, with 7 German pre-dreadnoughts lying at the bottom. That's 28 big guns (almost 3 dreadnoughts worth) no longer in their battle-line, and 7 fewer targets for my ships to expend ammunition on. According to intelligence reports, the SMS Nassau, SMS Prinzregenet Lutipold, and SMS Oldenburg will be in repair for 7-8 weeks repairing damage.
Yet it is time to plan the next move. With so many of the big ships in the yard, the few operational ones will be confined to training in order to build and maintain crew skill. As such, it will fall to the light forces of the fleet to nip at the Hun's heels. Admiralty orders from Mr. Churchill and Admiral Mountbatten (as Admiral Prince Battenberg is now known) are for a force of three armored cruisers to sweep Little Fisher Bank, with it being suggested that a light cruiser group sweep the Skagerrak. I intend to complete both the required order as well as the suggested operation. To do so requires a slight reorganization of assets. The 3rd Cruiser Squadron (4 Devonshire-class CAs) were shifted from Harwich to Grimsby, with HMS Devonshire being damaged by a mine and temporarily knocked out of action for 3 weeks repair. The 3/3 Destroyer Flotilla was shifted from Scapa Flow to Grimsby and reassigned to the Harwich Force to serve as screen. HMS Linnet struck a mine during the voyage down, and will now require a month's repair. This force will be informally known as the Grimsby Force but will still be attached to the Harwich Force. Their objective is the dot to the left.
The 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, augmented by the transfer of HMS Lowestoft and HMS Nottingham for this operation, will sail from Scapa Flow to the point in the center of the map. They will have both the 1/2 and 2/2 Destroyer Flotillas with them, as well as the 1/4 and 2/4 Destroyer Flotillas providing support for the first two destroyer flotillas. The idea is to swamp whatever we come across with a wall of torpedoes.
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Post by cv10 on May 16, 2017 9:11:39 GMT -6
Turn 5 (29th September): Operation The last two turns both involved large-scale actions between the Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy, with actions being fought at Horn's Reef and Dogger Bank. However not every turn can be a fleet action, and with so many battleships and battlecruisers being repaired, the brunt of this turn was to be given to the light forces. Both the Scapa Force (2nd Light Cruiser Squadron and 4 destroyer flotillas) and the Grimsby Force (3rd Cruiser Squadron and screening destroyers) sailed in good order. The Grimsby Force set course North-Northeast to reach it's objective, while the Scapa Force sailed east. During this time, Room 40 was somewhat active, making reports of enemy ships in the German Bight. These reports seemed to be identifying German naval patrols along the new German minefield and north of the West Frisian Islands, so the decision was taken to disregard them. The day ended, and at sunset, the my ships slowed to 10 knots in order to stay together while in the dark. The night passed without incident, and shortly after dawn, the Grimsby Force reached it objective, with the Scapa Force reaching its point about two hours later. After this, my ships set a course for home. They did not sight any German ships, and the Germans seemed content to keep their big ships in as well. Overall, this was a welcome change of pace from the massive battles of the last four weeks. I'm content that my ships made it to their objectives and back without running into any German big ships (I shudder to think what would have happened if the Lützow had been sent out). As it turned out, there was a small force of German light cruisers patrolling North-west of Helgoland, so I did miss the opportunity to have it out with them, and probably sink the lot. However there will be more than enough opportunities for that come winter. I also missed the chance to do so mining unopposed, so I will not make that mistake again.
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Post by cv10 on May 17, 2017 8:28:01 GMT -6
Turn 6: October 13th, 1914 (Planning)
The Grand Fleet's battle-line continues to regain it's strength, and we are now up to 14 operational BBs with 12 dreadnoughts and 2 two battlecruisers. In addition, HMS Benbow (Iron Duke class dreadnought) will arrive next turn. HMS Dreadnought is due for a refit, but I will hold off until the next turn, as several other dreadnoughts will finish their repairs by that time. In the meantime, the dreadnoughts of the Grand Fleet, and their supporting light forces will be training in order to get crew quality up. While the dreadnoughts receive priority for training, I don't want to neglect my cruisers and destroyers too much. After all, the better their crews are, the better protected by own dreadnoughts will be from enemy torpedo attacks and the more likely my own destroyers are to actually hit something with their torpedoes. Orders have been received from Mr. Churchill and Admiral Battenberg for two battlecruisers to sweep the North Sea and reach a point designated "Point Battenberg" for this operation. HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible will sail with three supporting destroyer flotillas. While the battlecruisers will engage any German light forces encountered. They will not engage any German big ships. The Admiralty has also suggested that a squadron of dreadnoughts sweep at my discretion, however with a good number of them still under repair, I will decline to send out any dreadnoughts. In addition to the battlecruiser sweep, I will also have two of the mine-layer cruisers of the Harwich Force lay a minefield between the two already laid off Texel and Oyster Ground. Due to the close proximity to Point Battenberg, the Battlecruisers should be able to screen the minelayers. Four E-class submarines are being posted to patrol the southern edge of the German minefield in order to report on any German ship movements. All hopes and indications are that this should be a quiet turn. All of the German big ships damaged at Dogger Banks are still under repair, and I doubt that they will sortie the High Seas Fleet. I wouldn't mind running into a few German cruisers though.
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Post by cv10 on May 19, 2017 19:30:36 GMT -6
Turn 6 (October 13th 1914): Operation
Much like last turn, this turn passed without any combat. As such, this will be a rather short update, as there really isn't too much to write about. The minelaying cruisers sortied out from Sheerness in good order, and reached their objective point. The minefield was laid in a satisfactory manner, and the minelayer cruisers returned home to Sheerness without incident. In the meantime, HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible reach Point Battenburg without incident or encountering the Germans. Room 40 reports nothing, and the battlecruisers sweep the edge of the German minefield. However, not so much as a minesweeper or patrol destroyer was spotted, and the battlecruisers returned to Edinburgh via a southerly route that took them up the eastern coast of Britain. It was thought that this round-about path would enable the battlecruisers to rapidly come to the rescue of any city being attacked by German cruisers. Overall, this was not the worst possible outcome for this operation. My battlecruiser force was pitifully weak, and it would not have been good to run into the German battlecruiser(s) as neither of my ships crews were particularly well trained. They just arrived last turn, and they depart after this one to go chase down the Admiral von Spee and his East Asia Squadron. Admiral Cradock and Coronel must be avenged! The rest of my battlecruisers are under repair, with one of them arriving back from the yard after this turn. My main intent was to hunt for German light cruisers. however the weather during this turn was exceedingly poor, raining heavily, and engaging German light forces in such weather would have risked a torpedo nightmare. I've already lost four big ships to German torpedoes, and would rather not lose anymore unnecessarily.
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Post by cv10 on May 24, 2017 20:13:29 GMT -6
If you've been reading the last few posts, you've probably guessed that fleet activity is entering a period of inactivity due to the approach of winter (comes early in the North Sea) where the days are much shorter. I'm reluctant to risk my battleships running into the German fleet at night, so for the most part, the focus will be on light forces and mining operations. However I don't wont this AAR to get boring, and I feel that AARs are great places to discuss both in-game and real life tactics strategy, and history. So I'm going to encourage that any readers who wish to discuss these topics to do so!
I've been reading Massie's boos Dreadnought and Castles of Steel. For those of you who haven't read them, I cannot recommend them enough. Dreadnought is excellent, and a bit shocking (the section on the fight between Charles Beresford and the Admiralty under Fisher begs the phrase "what a heck of a way to run a navy!"). One of the things about Massie is that he is an expert on the Romanovs (won a Pulitzer Prize writing about them) and I think he tends to gravitate towards the characters involved in the history. One forum goer (if I recall correctly) felt that his second book was a bit dry, and I'm inclined to agree. I think that is because he's writing more about the battles and less about the politics and diplomacy, and I think he prefers the politics and diplomacy.
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Post by bcoopactual on May 25, 2017 6:33:04 GMT -6
I'm about 30% of the way into Dreadnought now and it's been fascinating. So far it's not at all what I expected when I bought the book but it is remarkable reading on the motivations of the principles that started the ball rolling towards WWI. I get the impression that Bismarck unwittingly installed a self destruct switch in the German Empire he spent his life building by implementing a political system tailor made for him but not sustainable by lesser intellects and then installed a timer set to count down after his removal from power because he encouraged the then young Prince Wilhelm II's worst character traits to cause a rift between Wilhelm and his father whose politics Bismarck strongly disagreed with.
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Post by cv10 on May 25, 2017 8:29:57 GMT -6
I get the impression that Bismarck unwittingly installed a self destruct switch in the German Empire he spent his life building by implementing a political system tailor made for him but not sustainable by lesser intellects and then installed a timer set to count down after his removal from power because he encouraged the then young Prince Wilhelm II's worst character traits to cause a rift between Wilhelm and his father whose politics Bismarck strongly disagreed with. I got that same impression too. The system worked because Bismarck was the one managing foreign policy, and Emperor Wilhelm I didn't seem inclined to interfere with his efforts. While Bismarck accomplished great things (unifying Germany), he helped create the monster (with regards to his personality) that was Wilhelm II, which would pull down a lot of his hard work. Within 30 years of his loss of power, the German Empire had collapsed, lost all of its colonial holdings, and lost a huge amount of its Eastern territory for the re-establishment of the Poland, and the new German Republic was an international pariah.
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Post by babylon218 on May 25, 2017 11:46:45 GMT -6
That's one big reason why the classic headline people think about with regards to Bismarck is: 'Bismarck resigns; Ship of State loses its pilot!' The German constitution set by Bismarck was probably one of the best political systems developed in the 19th Century - provided Bismarck was in power. Bismarck seemed to have this uncanny way of seeing how events would pan out and turning them to Germany's advantage ahead of time. He also enjoyed a relationship with Wilhelm I that ensured he could work unmolested: Wilhelm I was in any case a reluctant Kaiser.
In any case, it's certainly telling that the figure at the centre of the Hall of Mirrors painting of the coronation of Wilhelm I as Kaiser is not the Kaiser himself, but the Chancellor who had made the event possible through careful manipulation of circumstances.
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Post by director on May 25, 2017 15:21:06 GMT -6
it really should have been Friedrich III who turned Bismarck out. His early death (and the manner of it), along with Wilhelm IIs personality and shortcomings, certainly had an impact on history. Don't forget Bismarck's long ally and then bitter enemy von Holstein, who manuevered against the father and son with great skill and to ruinous effect.
Bismarck found the truth of the old adage, 'friends come and go but enemies accumulate'. At least part of his problem was that after unifying Germany he really had no challenge to keep him interested.
If only Kaiser Wilhelm I had taken Bismarck's advice and not Moltke's, and left Alsace-Lorraine to France...
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Post by cv10 on May 25, 2017 15:48:13 GMT -6
Bismarck wanted to keep France isolated diplomatically, but didn't seem keen to keep humiliating the French after the Franco-Prussian War. I think it might have been possible for the French to accept that Alsace-Lorraine was lost, but once Bismarck left, the intervention of Kaiser Wilhelm and Bülow with regards to the French occupation of Morocco in 1905 and then in 1911 helped kindle the flames of French antipathy to Germany. I think these attempts to further humiliate the French also created a lot of sympathy in British government circles (many of whom were decidedly francophile like Salisbury and King Edward) for France, and antipathy for Germany (Lloyd-George was Pro-German but even he found the conduct of Germany to be intolerable in 1911).
Furthermore, I think Bismarck understood that there was no value to antagonizing the British. In my opinion, the british at this stage were a world power, but not a European power. Their mastery of the Seas gave them control over the trade lanes, and the ability to cripple a potential enemy's shipping. However the British Army was too small to be of much use against any continental nation's army. I think Bismarck even went so far as to quip that if the British Army landed on the German coast, he'd trust the police to arrest it. Hence why Britain maintained its splendid isolation for so long, and Bismarck, understanding that Germany was a continental power, was content not to challenge British control of the seas and maintain modest colonial ambitions. Once he was ousted, the his successors and the Kaiser seemed content to go out of their way to antagonize the British. In effect, Bismarck-less Germany pushed Britain even closer to France and Russia, as should war with Germany break out, the British wanted continental allies that could challenge Germany on land.
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Post by cv10 on May 26, 2017 22:08:11 GMT -6
Turn 7: October 27th 1914, Planning This will be yet another mine-laying turn. Unlike previous minelaying operations, this one will be farther north in the North Sea, rather than the previous area between Texel and Oyster Ground. Due to this shift, I have rebased my minelayers at Grimsby. To cover this operation, I will be sending out the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, along with some destroyers. I have also shifted 2 additional cruisers from the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron to beef up the cruiser force. After the minefield is laid, I will be sweeping the edge of the German defensive minefield in the hopes of sinking some patrol vessels.
Above: Minefield objective Above: Fleet Units being sent out Now for a bit of fleet organization business. I made a big mistake. Due to the coming of winter, I decided to start expediting the refits of my battle-line to ensure that once spring arrives, I won't have too many big ships being sent away for repair. Now all big ships under repair don't count for operational BBs. While I was absent-mindedly ordering my big ships to refit, I ordered my entire battle-line to be refitted. That's right, I (the big genius), have bungled my fleet refits and given dreadnought superiority to the Germans. Right now, I am still listed as having 15 active BBs, but in reality I have only 1 (a battlecruiser, which counts towards the requirement). The avatar used by forum member fredsanford accurately sums up what I have been saying to myself for the hour after I did that. It is entirely possible that I will be sacked by the computer admiralty, and if Jellicoe or Beatty had done something this bone-headed, they'd likely have been given the boot too! Maybe I'll get lucky and torpedo the entire German fleet! Fingers crossed!
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