Imperial German Navy: AAR

[urbanwulf]

Hello all, thought I might spice up my latest campaign by recording how my latest attempt goes, though I haven't fully finished a game all the way up to 1955 yet before jumping into new ones. I've been enjoying a slower than usual research rate lately, so it may end up a very different game from the norm, and I haven't played as Germany since RTW1, so it will be interesting to see how I fare..! I've made up all the names and probably how the admiralty and such work, so it's a proper alternate reality alright! It's my first time attempting something like this so bear with me 

First off, the campaign settings:
1900 Start
Fleet Size: Very large
Historical resources
60% Research rate
Slow aircraft development
Manual build of legacy fleet

In January 1900 Vice-Admiral Wulf von Urban assumed the position of State Secretary of the Navy, replacing Admiral Edgar von Mayr who died from a cardiac arrest while touring SMS Irene.

Let's have a look at what he inherited:



First off, the heavy ships. Currently Germany has four Brandenburg-class battleships ready, with the final two still under construction. Heavily armoured and armed with four 11" guns, the heaviest German gun manufacturers can produce currently, with a secondary battery of sixteen 6" guns in casemates, and fourteen 3" guns to make small enemy vessels think twice before getting too close. They are only able to reach a top speed of 18 knots however, it remains to be seen if this will be sufficient in a conflict.

In addition to the battleships, Germany has three Irene-class armoured cruisers available, with another still being constructed. They have good armour, and come with four 9" guns in two turrets, and an assortment of 6" and 3" guns in support. They are slightly quicker than the battleships, though still rather slow.



Germany has two classes of protected cruiser at her disposal - A pair of Gefion-class cruisers, designed primarily for colonial work and well armed to deal with enemies who may try to disrupt trade abroad. They both come with a detachment of marines for boarding actions and other duties.

And a pair of smaller Bremen-class cruisers currently sitting in the home fleet. They are designed to be fleet scouts, though due to the current lack of protected cruisers they will be expected to act as destroyer leaders as well, a role they'll have have to keep until a newer, faster cruiser can be developed and a budget found for. Four more are currently under construction.



Eighteen T2-class torpedo boat destroyers make up the rest of the main fleet, with another six still in the shipyards.

To assist the pair of Gefion-class cruisers in their colonial duties, there are six August Pieper-class gunboats. Thought light on arms and armour, they carry small units of marines and are capable of showing Germany's flag around the world. Three are currently assigned to the Indian Ocean, with the remainder protecting national interests in Northeast Asia.

And there we have it! Will this fledgling fleet become the terror of the North Seas, or will Germany's naval aspirations be thwarted by her neighbours... Only time will tell.

EDIT: And if you were wondering how the fleets all looked at the start of the game, please see below for the almanac! As you can see while my pre-dreadnought line dwarfed even the Royal Navy at this time, I was far behind on both the armoured and protected cruiser front. I tend to build more destroyers than strictly needed in the early game, so it's not a surprise I have the most.

[urbanwulf]

Back for more! I won't be doing a play by play of every turn, just highlighting the more interesting events:

1900
May - The remainder of the T2-class destroyers are commissioned into the navy, and begin working up. Colonial arguments in East Africa cause tensions with Italy to rise sharply.

September - An expansion of the shipyards is ordered. Germany and Italy agree on making mostly symbolic concessions to reduce tensions.

1901
January - The fifth battleship of the Brandenburg-class is commissioned into the navy, along with the final ship in the Irene-class, SMS Freya.

February - Tensions with Russia are starting to rise, disputes in the Balkans are beginning to get out of hand. The nationalist party manage to convince the Kaiser to allocate more funds to the Navy.

June - Britain increases naval spending, no doubt concerned by the expanding German fleet which, while still in it's infancy, currently outnumbers the Royal Navy in Northern Europe quite handily. Though this is mostly due to the British colonial requirements, no doubt if war did break out ships would be recalled.

July - At a national conference, a naval arms limitation treaty is signed by all major nations, including Germany. It restricts vessels to a maximum of 18,000 tonnes displacement, and the largest guns they are allowed to bear will be 12 inches. The treaty will be in force until 1915. France scrapped three battleships, however no other nations were building ships of that size or larger at the time. Tensions are lowered across the board.

August - All of the Bremen-class cruisers are now on active duty.

1902
January - One of Germany's allies in the Balkans is threatened by a neighbour, and the Kaiser decides to throw Germany's weight behind them. France and Italy took a dim view to this however, and tensions rise.

April - A new destroyer is designed and eighteen of them ordered. The T3 class displaces 600t and they focus more on the tropedo armament rather than the guns of the T2 class. They have a single 4" gun and a 2" gun on both sides, as well as 4 torpedo tubes, two on both sides of the ship. They are slightly speedier than the T2 class, though not by much.



May - The last Brandenburg-class ship, SMS Elsass is commissioned into the navy. The embers are still burning and war appears to be on the horizon in the Balkans, the Kaiser allows the major arms manufacturers of Germany to start supplying the nations aligned with Germany. France, Italy and Russia protested to this, and stepped up their own participation in the region.

June - A politician in the Balkans is murdered, and as it happens it was one who advocated with closer ties between his country and Germany. The Kaiser is furious, and demands that the guilty are brought to justice post haste, even at the risk of heightening the already tense political landscape there. Russia makes it's displeasure with how Germany is conducting it's affairs in the region known.

September - Rumour has it Russia is rapidly building up it's fleet, and France is stepping up armoured cruiser production. Concerns are brought to the admiralty that the armoured cruiser force is insufficient, however there is nowhere in the budget for new cruisers currently.

1903
January - The new T3 destroyers are completed, and begin working up.

February - Tensions with Russia reach critical levels as war in the Balkans looks more and more likely. New ordinances are filtered down to ship captains that they are expected to concentrate on gunnery training, and extra funds are allocated to this purpose.

September - As mines become a more prevalent defensive tactic, the admiralty orders a purpose built minesweeper corvette be designed for use during war.

October - Russia issues an ultimatum to Germany, demanding they back down in the Balkan region. The Kaiser refuses, and on the 11th of October 1903 both sides formally declare war. Coastal defences are ordered to be bolstered with new 6 and 8 inch batteries, to be deployed around ports and other areas of importance along the coastline of Germany and East Prussia, as a precaution.

November - On the 15th, a mixed force of T2 and T3 destroyers steamed into the Bay of Riga, ordered to disrupt enemy shipping in the vicinity. Several small and medium merchant ships were sunk before a small flotilla of enemy destroyers sailed out of Riga to meet the German ships. A small gun battle ensued, though no hits were made by either side. The arrival of night saw the German force escape back to home waters unscathed.

December - The Battle of Irbe Strait
On the 17th, the armoured cruisers Freya and Irene are patrolling the Baltic near Riga with a destroyer escort, when smoke was spotted on the horizon. Thinking it may be enemy merchants, the commander ordered the force toward the smoke to investigate. Quickly it became apparent that it was actually a roughly equivalent force of Russian ships, however they also had the benefit of a pair of escorting protected cruisers.

Despite the numbers disadvantage, Freya and Irene pressed the attack and engaged the pair of enemy armoured cruisers at long range. As the ships closed together, hits started to connect, with the German gunnery practice paying off and landing more hits than the Russians did. Unfortunately, part way into the gunnery duel a lucky hit knocked Freya's rudder out of action, leaving her spinning in circles. Irene turned to cover her sister ship, as did the destroyer screen. Freya's crew worked tirelessly to bring the rudder back into action and soon got it working properly again, though it would need repairing at a proper dockyard after the battle. The Russian ships did not manage to capitalise on Freya's misfortune.

At one point, one of the enemy armoured cruisers got within 1500 yards of Freya and Irene, and was severely punished for it, slowly peeling away with multiple 9 and 6 inch hits and her superstructure aflame. It started foundering, still on fire a few minutes later, and some 6 inch hits caused one of her destroyer escorts to start sinking as well. One of the escorting T3 destroyers put a pair of torpedoes into the enemy cruiser to ensure her fate while Freya and Irene fought the remaining Russian armoured cruiser. Though both sides appeared willing to keep up the fight, they lost track of one another as night began to fall.

Freya and Irene both suffered light damage, with Freya needing a month in dock for repairs on her rudder, and one of their escorting destroyers had some moderate damage from getting too close to an enemy protected cruiser which would require several months out of action. Senior members of the Navy were very pleased with how their ships and crews conducted themselves in the fight.



The German Navy's first major action in the war went splendidly, a heavy blow to Russia's already middling fleet - by all accounts they only have 2 armoured cruisers left, though 2 more are known to be under construction. The gunnery practice the German crews underwent seemed to make the difference, though it really took the enemy ship blundering so close to our cruiser's broadside for the pain to really be dished out. Hopefully the outcome of the battle will become a lasting trend... 

[zardoz]

Dear Urbanwulf,

could you give some information from the almanach about the strength of the other navies?

[urbanwulf]

Jun 3, 2019 11:22:06 GMT -6 zardoz said:

Dear Urbanwulf,

could you give some information from the almanach about the strength of the other navies?

Ah, I must have got far too excited as I completely forgot to add that to the first post, thanks for the reminder! I've now added a screenshot of the almanac from Jan 1900 to the bottom.

I'll endeavour to remember to make updates on the state of the world's navies in future posts as well. 

[zardoz]

Thanks!

Very different from RTW 1. Never saw a nation without any B at the beginning. Even Japan and Italy had normally 2 Bs on "very large". And UK with less Bs than Germany? Very weird !!


I will have to define a new strategy for playing Germany ... .

[urbanwulf]

Jun 3, 2019 12:21:09 GMT -6 zardoz said:

Thanks!

Very different from RTW 1. Never saw a nation without any B at the beginning. Even Japan and Italy had normally 2 Bs on "very large". And UK with less Bs than Germany? Very weird !!


I will have to define a new strategy for playing Germany ... .

Yes, very strange! I recall GB in particular usually boasting a slightly frightening array of pre-dreadnoughts in rtw1 right at the start, I wonder what has changed for the ai nations to focus on armoured cruisers instead? Reading forum threads here it seems to be a fairly common occurrence.

[hmssophia]

I figure it's a bug? But i'm not sure what's causing it.

[yemo]

Jun 3, 2019 14:06:34 GMT -6 hmssophia said:

I figure it's a bug? But i'm not sure what's causing it.

Yeah, a bug in the fleet generation. Do keep in mind that it does not seem to affect what fleet the AIs build for after generating their starting fleets. So especially UK will lay down a lot of Bs in the coming years.

It tends to lead to a lot more BCs since the gap between desired and existing fleet composition usually still exists when those become available.

Also historical budget seemed to be bugged (no difference to game budget).

[urbanwulf]

Indeed - GB in particular seems to be building up their battle-fleet, though other nations are still somewhat lagging behind so far.

Anyway, the scuffle with Russia continues!

1904

January - Reports say the blockade of the Baltic is effective and there are food shortages in parts of Russia.

February - In a minor engagement in the Baltic, a merchant convoy came under attack during the night by several Russian protected cruisers. The pair of destroyers assigned to defending the convoy bravely fended off the attack while the merchants attempted to escape. One destroyer was sunk and the other limped away with moderate damage, however their actions distracted the enemy cruisers long enough for the merchants to slip away in the darkness completely unscathed. Despite suffering the loss of one destroyer, and another out of action for several months, it was regarded as a victory and a great feat of courage among the fleet, showing that even outgunned and outmatched the ships of the navy could put up a stiff resistance.

May - Battle of the Southern Baltic
On the 5th of May, the battleships Weissenburg, Brandenburg and Zahringen are patrolling the Baltic, escorted by the armoured cruisers Prinzess Wilhelm, Victoria Louise and Freya along with assorted protected cruisers and destroyers. At around noon enemy ships are located in the distance, thought by spotters to be scouting cruisers for a larger force. Sure enough, enemy battleships and escorts were soon spotted heading right for the German squadron. As the enemy closed, it became apparent that the German force would be at a disadvantage at range, as the enemy ships were all armed with 12 inch guns, so Vice-Admiral Robert Niemeyer (his flag on SMS Weissenburg) ordered his battleships and cruisers to steam full ahead and close with the enemy.

A running gun duel ensued, and though the enemy had larger guns at their disposal, their lack of armoured cruisers to assist evened the odds somewhat. Brandenburg took some heavy hits early on and had to briefly pull away from the battle line to repair damage but was back in action fairly quickly. German guns seemed to be landing more hits than the Russians, however it was hard to tell if any of them were doing any significant damage. After around 24 minutes of non-stop firing, one or more of the Russian battleships seemed to be having trouble keeping their speed up, and thus both sides slowed so one side did not outpace the other. Aside from the initial few salvos, Russian gunnery proved to be utterly abysmal, only landing scattered hits here and there.

A very brave or very foolhardy trio of Russian destroyers attempted to penetrate the German screen to torpedo the battleships, however they were all repulsed, each taking several hits from the German protected cruisers and destroyers alike. The rear most battleship in the Russian line noticeably started to lag behind the rest, and attempted to pull away from the battle. The commander of destroyer T101 noticed the opportunity and led his destroyer squadron in a run on the imperilled battleship. Despite the efforts of the secondary gun crews on the battleship, T101 got a perfect angle on her and loosed a pair of torpedoes. Both went straight and true, impacting the vessel amidships. She began to take on a list almost immediately, and her crew was seen to be abandoning ship in whatever boats weren't full of holes already. All didn't go the German's way however, moments before the torpedoes hit home a 6" shell struck the bridge of T101, killing most of the bridge officers, including the destroyer squadron commander, and wounding the rest. He was posthumously awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for his action in the sinking of the Russian battleship.

While those events were going on, the main German force was still engaging the remaining pair of Russian battleships, however as the weather starting taking a turn for the worse and night was rapidly approaching, both sides opted to withdraw and lick their wounds. Aside from a brief run in with a seemingly lost and very surprised enemy cruiser in the darkness, the return trip back to port was uneventful. Most ships in the German force had taken light damage, while dealing out much more in return.



Another excellent victory for the Imperial German Navy, with the Russian battleships running back to port with their tails between their legs it was becoming apparent that the quality of both ships and crews of the respective nations were far apart. The admiralty expect the main Russian fleet to bottle up safely inside a port and play no further role in the war, aside from perhaps the odd raid here and there.

June - Widespread demonstrations and disturbances are reported in Russia.

August - As Russian cruisers slip through the blockade here and there in order to attack German merchant shipping, the admiralty order a design for a long range protected cruiser to use in the commerce raider capacity. It would need to be armed well enough to combat enemy destroyers, and fast enough to escape from enemy cruisers should they be encountered.

September - In a minor engagement just off the coast near Danzig, the protected cruiser SMS Ariadne is sunk in battle against a force of enemy cruisers and destroyers. She took two enemy destroyers with her, however it was still a relatively harsh blow to the limited amount of light cruisers Germany could bring to bear. Following the loss of Ariadne, another new protected cruiser was ordered to be designed. It was planned to be faster and more heavily armed to allow it to stand against enemy protected cruisers, the Russians with their 6" guns seemed to be getting the better of the 4" armed German counterparts. The class would be named after the Ariadne. (I actually played no part in the battle, while I was wandering the Baltic with a force of armoured cruisers looking for the enemy, some AI controlled forces got into a melee without me - I was not alerted to the where this battle was taking place until just after I received the message about my sinking ship!)

October - The design for the new Amazone-class raiders is finished, and three hulls are laid down.

November - Six hulls of the new Ariadne-class protected cruisers are laid down.

December - Near Christmas, the war judders to a halt. The Russian government signs a peace treaty favourable to Germany and her allies, gaining war reparations and a reduction in Russian presence in the Balkans. Many senior officials in the German army and navy protested the peace, arguing that if given more time Russia could have been forced into a much worse position, however the Kaiser decided that Germany's efforts would be best spent elsewhere, rather than embroiled in a squabble with Russia.

And there we have it, the first test of the German Navy and they came out on top! I wanted to continue to press Russia into collapse, however it didn't go my way this time. I didn't want further colonial commitments so I went with monetary gain instead, however I would have picked up the Baltic States or Finland had the opportunity arisen. On to preparing the navy for the next war, against an opponent unknown... 

[renlybaratheon]

Iron Cross 2nd Class for his action in the sinking of the Russian battleship

He has got to feel short changed for that. Surely a battleship is worth the Blue Max??

[urbanwulf]

Jun 4, 2019 13:41:47 GMT -6 renlybaratheon said:

Iron Cross 2nd Class for his action in the sinking of the Russian battleship

He has got to feel short changed for that. Surely a battleship is worth the Blue Max??

Sadly he won't be feeling much of anything since he was killed in the action! My brief bit of research did lead me toward that decoration, however I found several sources that mentioned it was never awarded posthumously.

[zardoz]

then he has to get the Blue max postumly! And the widow a (higher) pension ...

RIP!

[urbanwulf]

1905
January - The 3 raiding cruisers are put on hold in favour of completing the Ariadne-class first, with the war over there shouldn't be a need for raiders for some time.

October - With one of the shipyards short on orders, they offer to build another two Ariadne-class cruisers with a discount. The offer is agreed and the ships are laid down.

1906
The first of the Ariadne class protected cruisers are commissioned into the navy over the course of the year.


November - The Kaiser makes a bombastic speech about France's foreign policy, and tensions skyrocket as a result of some particularly choice statements. Meanwhile the British are building and completing a rather scary number of battleships...

1907
February - With France beginning to invest in heavier ships, the admiralty decide to design a new armoured cruiser to combat the threat.

April - Some of Germany's leading arms manufacturers enter a technology sharing agreement similar companies in Great Britain.

May - Four hulls of the new Hertha-class armoured cruisers are laid down. They feature eight 10" guns in four turrets, one fore and aft, and one on either side, staggered for cross-deck fire. They also have a secondary/tertiary battery of twelve 6" and eight 3" guns, a well armoured belt and should be capable of reaching 23 knots.

November - Tensions with France continue to rise, and newspapers are reporting that a war is imminent.

December - On the 10th of December, war is finally declared by France and Germany.

Battle of Borkum Riff
On the 18th, the armoured cruiser Freya locates a pair of enemy armoured cruisers and destroyer escorts attempting to attack merchant shipping just North of Emden. She moved in to try and deter the enemy from going after a merchant that was close by. The cruisers fired upon each other as they closed, and shells began hitting home. Fairly quickly, Freya's accurate fire began taking effect, the lead French armoured cruiser started slowing down noticeably, and the French ships began attempting to disengage, moving West toward friendly waters. Several more 9" shells from Freya slammed into the slower French cruiser, and set it's superstructure on fire. After another 20 minutes of exchanging shells, the already damaged armoured cruiser slowly slid to a halt, and began settling into the water.

With one of her opponents out of the fight for good, Freya began chasing the other cruiser that was trying to make her escape to the South West. She had been sufficiently slowed in the fight that even at Freya's paltry top speed of 19 knots could catch up to her with little difficulty. As night began to fall, and Freya's ammunition reserves beginning to run dry, it became a race against time to finish off the French cruiser before darkness covered her escape. Though as Freya got closer it became apparent that the enemy cruiser was more damaged than initially thought, and as more hits from accurate fire hit home the cruiser looked to be bleeding speed fast.

Freya's destroyer escorts wanted to make a torpedo run on the enemy to finish her off, however the French escorts managed to beat off several attempts before range could be made. The fifth time was the charm though, and a small lapse in the screen allowed the destroyers T3, T87 and T88 in close enough to launch their fish. Two out of four loosed appeared to hit, and the French cruiser ran aground on a sand bar North-West of Emden and went no further, her escorts seemingly abandoning her and disappearing into the gloom. Freya and her escort headed back to port, exuberant in their victory against a superior enemy force. Once home safe they alerted command about the beached enemy cruiser, although when several ships were sent to investigate they found the hulk burning and her crew gone, presumed to have been evacuated by the French destroyers before the cruiser was scuttled further.

The battle was much publicised in German newspapers, hailing the gunnery and seamanship shown by Freya and her escort's crews, and deriding the French conduct in the battle. A junior officer who served aboard SMS Freya was quoted as saying "If all our battles go like that, the enemy won't have any ships left by next Christmas!", which pretty handily summed up the general feeling on the matter. 

And here is a snapshot of the almanac from the start of 1908:

[urbanwulf]

1908
January - The German navy traps part of the French fleet in port, and announces a blockade is now in place.

February - Battle of Rochebonne
On the 12th, the armoured cruisers Freya and Irene are patrolling the West coast of France, looking for enemy shipping trying to break the blockade. After sinking several merchantmen in the darkness, at around 03:00 in the morning contact was made with an enemy ship, possibly sent from the nearby port of La Rochelle to intercept the raiding party.

She was confirmed to be an enemy armoured cruiser, and looked to be roughly equivalent of the Irene class cruisers. Outnumbered two-to-one though, the enemy cruiser was quickly knocked out of action by accurate 9" and 6" fire. As the sun rose, a pair of enemy armoured cruisers appeared to the North, and Freya and Irene turned away from their previous prey to meet the new threat. After exchanging fire with the two new cruisers for a few minutes, a signal from one of the escorting light cruisers indicated that more enemy cruisers were approaching from the South. At risk of being boxed in by superior enemy forces and starting to run low on ammunition, the commander aboard SMS Freya decided that discretion was the better part of valour and gave orders to withdraw.

Despite several attempts from the French cruisers to re-engage, limited salvos from Freya and Irene chased them off. After a while the enemy stopped tailing the German cruisers and they made it home without further incident. Once again, the German ships made it out of the fight with only light damage, with the exception of SMS Bremen, the light cruiser who had warned the force commander more enemy ships were approaching and had moderate damage from being hit by several 6" and 8" shells. Despite facing superior forces again, Freya and Irene had sunk another two enemy armoured cruisers - evidently one of the other intercepting cruisers had taken serious enough damage to sink her before she could even reach the very close port.



April - 2nd Battle of Borkum Riff
On the 18th, the cruisers Freya and Irene, now veterans of several battles and pride of the navy, were on a routine patrol in the Helgoland area when a formation of ships was spotted in the distance. They were confirmed to be enemies steaming toward Helgoland, and as they got closer it was confirmed there were three enemy armoured cruisers leading the force.

After exchanging long ranger fire, both sides closed to within around 6500yds and pummelled each other relentlessly. Though the German fire was accurate as ever, Freya was taking a real beating in return with Irene faring a little better. Around 20 minutes into the fight, a round from one of Irene's secondary 6" guns hit the leading enemy ship, the shell must have penetrated the magazine as the ship almost completely disappeared in a massive fireball. The two following cruisers had to turn violently to avoid ramming the wreck. Suddenly the odds were looking a lot more even.

Soon after, Freya's superstructure was set on fire and threatened to burn out of control. After disengaging for a few minutes, the damage control parties managed to put the fire out but reported that it had done a fair amount of damage to the fire control systems. The enemy started withdrawing as both sides ran out of ammunition and night started creeping in, and no further contact was made. Once again a superior force of enemy ships had been chased off, with one going to the bottom of the sea - though this fight had been decidedly less one sided hits wise, the German cruisers still came out of it relatively lightly damaged, but would still require 2 months each in dock for repairs. France is bleeding heavy ships fast, could that young officer have been right after all?

May - The armoured cruiser Prinzess Wilhelm sinks an enemy armoured cruiser in a one on one duel after being intercepted attempting to blow past the blockade. The three new Amazone class raiders are completed, and begin working up.



June - Reports say some parts of France are suffering from food and material shortages. Another enemy armoured cruiser raider is intercepted by SMS Freya, and the now near legendary ship makes short work of the unlucky French vessel.

August - In a minor action off the coast of Emden, a German destroyer is lost, though one French destroyer is also sunk, and several more badly damaged.

October - German gun manufacturers report they are now able to build 12" guns, the tech sharing with the British companies is apparently a major factor.

November - Destroyers on a morning coastal patrol near Emden come across a small flotilla of life rafts bobbing on the waves. Upon picking them up they find out that they are French sailors and were aboard an enemy armoured cruiser when it struck a mine in the night. Due to the rough seas she had begun to ship more water than the damage repair crews could handle and sank over several hours. Though it was believed all crew members who survived the mine explosion had made it aboard a raft, the one with the majority of the senior officers in had gone missing.

December - The raider SMS Amazone intercepts and sinks a French AMC.

[urbanwulf]

1909
January - Troubled about the new "dreadnought" style battleships starting to leave the slipways of Great Britain, the admiralty orders the design of a new battleship in a similar vein. To be known as the Lothringen class, they will displace 21,000t, armed with ten 12" guns in a AFGWY arrangement, a belt of 10" and a top speed of 20 knots.

February - The raiding cruiser Arcona sinks an enemy protected cruiser trying to run the blockade.

April - Widespread strikes and anti-war protests are rumoured to take place in France.

May - France decides to cut their losses and sues for peace, negotiations began in earnest. By the end of May the talks had concluded, and France agreed to cede Tunisia and Algeria to Germany. The Kaiser's idea, he wanted Germany to have a larger presence in the Mediterranean to keep shipping lanes open should war break out again, and possibly become a staging area for further expansion should the opportunity arise. Three Bremen-class protected cruisers and some older destroyers are sent to protect the new German interests in the region.

The design for the Lothringen-class dreadnoughts is finished, and two hulls are laid down, though full construction is left on hold until the budget can be found for them. In the aftermath of the war the budget has been slashed considerably.

November - The first of the Hertha-class armoured cruisers, SMS Vineta, is commissioned into the navy. Some members of the public are bemused that the new so called cruisers are a fair shake larger than the ageing Brandenburg-class battleships.

1910
December - A colonial issue arises with Great Britain, and tensions increase as a result.

1912
April - The Kaiser makes an ill considered remark about the war with France, and tensions with the nation continue to rise as he refuses to apologise.

June - The first battlecruiser of the navy is designed, to be known as the Von der Tann-class. They will displace 20,000 tons, have a belt armour of 9" and armed with six 12" guns in three turrets, one forward, and two aft - including the first superimposed turret. She should be able to make 25 knots.

October - The design for the Von der Tann-class is completed, however the designers are ordered to replace the old multiple expansion engines with the brand new steam turbines that are coming into service. With the weight savings, their belt is increased to 10" and her speed should go up to 26 knots.

November - The ageing Irene-class cruisers are ordered to be rebuilt - the tertiary battery of 3" guns are to be removed and all of their machinery replaced - the outcome should be an increase of the top speed to 21 knots. The pair of Lothringen-class dreadnoughts are completed, Lothringen and her sister ship Deutschland.



1913
January - The two new Lothringen-class dreadnoughts are taken back into port, to have their main guns replaced with new and improved 12" guns. The refit will take 10 months.

February - Relations with Russia are taking a turn for the worse again. Two hulls of the new battlecruisers are laid down.

August - A security treaty is signed with Italy, the Kaiser hopes that Italy will remain a steadfast friend of Germany.

September - A new destroyer known as the T107-class is designed, to replace the T2 and T3 classes who are beginning to show their age. They displace 600t, are armed with a 4" gun fore and aft as well a twin torpedo mount on either side of the ship. 30 of them are laid down.

1914
June - A cruiser is designed in a new "light" configuration. They are armed with twelve 6" guns and should be able to reach a speed of 26 knots.

July - The new destroyers are commissioned into the navy, and begin working up. 



August - A new innovation is discovered and tested - lighter than air craft. An experimental airship base is constructed in Emden. Great Britain, looking to take advantage of turmoil in Greece and take it over no doubt is thwarted by an international force mostly organised by Italy and Germany.

September - Six hulls of the new Undine-class light cruisers are laid down.

October - With the Brandenburg battleships looking more and more obsolete, the decision is made to scrap them and free up funds for more dreadnoughts. A new dreadnought design is ordered, to have six of the new 13" guns in a AXY arrangement, a 10.5" belt and a top speed of 23 knots. They are to be known as the Schlesien-class...