Tales of the Hochseeflotte - an Imperial German AAR
Feb 22, 2022 19:54:29 GMT -6
garrisonchisholm, akosjaccik, and 4 more like this
Post by rs2excelsior on Feb 22, 2022 19:54:29 GMT -6
Reports were made, and an order was given. Kaiser's anchor raised out of the water, and the steam was routed to her turbines. Slowly, ponderously, the warship began making her way out of the harbor at Kiel. Ahead, destroyers and cruisers were already underway, taking up positions ahead. Behind, the rest of the battleships were doing the same. Tens of thousands of tons of armor and steel, shaking out into a long line.
The fleet was going to war.
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Hello everyone! I have a Germany game underway, and on the eve of a war with France, I thought I'd try my hand at making it into an AAR. I wasn't making notes or taking screenshots up until this point, so I'll do a summary of the first decade of the game based on the information I do have and my own recollection, and then I'll proceed with the war. Should be a fun time, and I hope you enjoy it!
Humble Beginnings, 1871-1905
Historically, the Kingdom of Prussia had never been much of a naval power. With only a relatively small Baltic sea coast, Prussia's land borders had always been far more important in terms of national defense. This was true even up through the Franco-Prussian war, where the small Prussian Navy gave a good accounting of itself despite the apparent superiority of the French Navy - though this was more indicative of issues within the Marine Nationale than of the quality of the Prussian ships.
The aftermath of the war brought changes to the small navy, now the Imperial German Navy. Most notably, if German had imperial ambitions, to expand in the new frontiers of Africa and Asia and to cement her prestige among the powers of Europe, she needed a navy worthy of the status. By folding the navies of the various north German states in with the Prussian navy, the new German Empire had a start, but it would not be enough - especially after Kaiser Wilhelm II took the throne in 1888. The Kaiser made it a personal goal to see Germany build a modern, capable navy - a navy to rival the likes of France or Great Britain. And so, in January 1900, the German High Seas Fleet had a respectable force of battleships and cruisers - not enough to reliably challenge the might of the Royal Navy, but certainly a force to be reckoned with on the European stage. But the next decade would not be a quiet one for the Imperial Navy.
The first few years of the decade were marked by a brief war with France in 1902, mostly over lingering tensions from the Franco-Prussian war. The war was not particularly decisive, especially at sea - for most of the war, the battle fleets simply postured at one another, though there were a few cruiser actions. Though the Hochseeflotte mostly managed to control the French Atlantic coast, no French warships were lost in the conflict, while the Germans suffered the loss of the Niobe-class protected cruiser SMS Ariadne and the destroyer S35 on October 10th, 1902. Still, the loss of the Atlantic ports and initial reverses on land brought a swift end to the war, with France surrendering Middle Congo and Madagascar to the growing German Empire in Africa, as well as inflicting some minor indemnities. It was a victory, to be sure, but not a stunning one like 1871 - it seemed France had learned from her earlier humiliation.
The Imperial Navy learned as well. Namely, that the 4" guns ubiquitous on their protected cruisers were not particularly effective, nor were a battleship's limited heavy guns given the limits of fire control. In response, the Posen-class of battleships, later called "semi-dreadnoughts," were laid down, mounting a secondary battery of twelve 21cm (8.1") guns in addition to her main battery of only slightly larger 24cm (9.4") guns, as well as the Kolberg-class protected cruisers, with four 17cm (6.7") and sixteen 7.5cm (3") guns, intended to make up for the lack of punch of earlier protected cruisers' 105cm guns. Additionally, the Emden-class armored cruisers were constructed, in order to give the Hochseeflotte the capability to take on the most powerful enemy armored cruisers on at least even terms, rather than having an eye towards raiding or patrolling colonial holdings.
The lessons learned would be put to the test a few short years later, as the German Empire went to war with Russia in 1904, this time with the benefit of an alliance with Japan. Once again, the Hochseeflotte established a blockade across the Baltic as the two powers mobilized. While the Japanese Navy was more than a match for the Russian ships in the Far East, a pair of Weissenburg-class battleships were dispatched along with escorts to Tsingtau, both to ensure German interests and as a show of good faith.
The first few months saw minor cruiser skirmishes with little damage to either side. An attempted Russian raid against East Prussia and Pomerania was intercepted, and in the chase along the coast from Kolberg to Swinemünde, the Russian battleship Imperator Nikolai I was torpedoed, cut off, and sunk. The Imperial Russian Navy was not ready to give up. Unlike the French two years earlier, the Russians made several attempts to lift the blockade. Convoys shipping critical iron ore from Sweden, escorted by German battleships, were on two separate occasions attacked by Russian capital ships, though the actions were mostly indecisive. Russia lost a handful of cruisers, though the Emden-class armored cruiser SMS Mainz was lost to a torpedo when she failed to turn away from a Russian destroyer division. No survivors from the bridge were recovered - it is unknown what caused the ship to simply continue on its course towards the enemy - perhaps a misunderstood signal, or rudder issues, or some failure to communicate between the bridge and the helm. None who could say the cause survived the sinking.
Though the loss of the Mainz stung, the blockade continued over the winter. In the spring, after poor weather delayed plans, a detachment of Imperial Marines secured a foothold near Port Arthur, followed ashore by elements of the German Army staged through Tsingtau. These forces laid siege to the Russian port, which was too strongly held to be seized in a direct assault. In Europe, the army scored a major success on land, striking suddenly from East Prussia in coordination with forces from Germany proper. The sudden attack saw the destruction of an entire Russian army near Tannenberg, followed by the near-destruction of a second which attempted to stabilize the situation. The campaign resulted in major gains for the Germans on land.
On April 7th, 1905, the Russians made a final bid to break the blockade, sortieing their entire fleet into the Baltic. The Hochseeflotte steamed to meet them. The German armored cruiser force pushed forward to engage their opposite number, while the two battlelines ponderously exchanged fire. It appeared that the battle would be yet another indecisive engagement, when the German admiral saw a chance he had not been offered in previous fleet encounters - the Russian line had become ragged, and the three rearmost Russian battleships were trailing behind the rest of the fleet. The Germans drove into the gap, splitting them from their support and mercilessly hammering the stricken battleships as the armored cruisers were recalled to close the trap. The Russian line made attempts to break through to their comrades, but these were halfhearted - faced with a German line in good order and with sufficient destroyers in support, there was little they could do. By the end of the day, the three battleships - Tsesarevich, Imperator Aleksandr I, and Retvizan had been sunk by a combination of gunfire and torpedoes, as well as the armored cruiser Varyag, the protected cruiser Yakhont, and a Russian destroyer. In exchange, the German Navy lost the older armored cruiser SMS Roon to a torpedo, as well as the destroyer V44.
While it was not the crushing defeat that the admirals had hoped for, it was certainly a more decisive action than had been seen between modern battleships thus far, and the Russian Navy did not make another serious attempt to break the blockade. With the army in Europe still scrambling to recover from its defeat and the fleet offering no prospects to turn things around, the Czar sought terms. The Baltic States were broken off from the Russian Empire, and German-friendly governments (some may say puppets) were installed in exchange for a withdrawal from Port Arthur.
The Dreadnought Race, 1905-1910
Despite its success in the Russo-German war, the Kaiserliche Marine could not rest on its laurels. Before the war had ended, reports of a new type of ship were filtering out of Britain, France, and the United States - the Dreadnought. All three nations were rumored to be building new battleships to an “all big gun” pattern, threatening to make the fleets of older battleships obsolete. Not long after the war, in 1906, HMS Dreadnought was commissioned, confirming what intelligence believed was true - armed with six 14” guns, her firepower was a step above all existing battleships. In 1907 the French dreadnought Charlemagne entered service, as did the US dreadnought USS Constellation - although the latter ship was a new type of warship called a battle-cruiser, combining the armament of a battleship with the speed of a cruiser. In the span of two years, the battleships and cruisers of the world had been rendered obsolete.
At the urging of the Kaiser, the Imperial German Navy entered the “dreadnought race” as soon as the war was done. The Ostfriesland-class battleships only carried 28cm (11”) guns, smaller than contemporary dreadnoughts, she mounted twelve of them in an arrangement that allowed her to fire eight to a broadside - while some in the navy and in the government criticized the choice of smaller guns, ultimately it was decided that the improved volume of fire would outweigh the range and individual hitting power of Dreadnought-style battleship guns. The choice was largely vindicated when the second British dreadnought HMS Prince of Wales, completed while the Ostfrieslands were under construction, utilized ten 12” guns in a similar arrangement. While other navies would experiment between traditional dreadnoughts and “Prince of Wales type” dreadnoughts, the Kaiserliche Marine would exclusively build the latter type.
The Battlecruiser USS Constellation was soon followed by similar ships in other navies, and the Kaiser demanded an answer - arguing that the new ships were larger, more heavily armed, better armored, and faster than existing cruisers, and therefore the German Navy would have no answer to the type in the event of war. While the argument was valid, the demand that the navy build four such ships put pressure on a naval office which would have rather continued building the battleline up first - it was believed that a battlecruiser would make unacceptable sacrifices in armor in order to achieve the necessary speed. Nevertheless, four ships of the new Von der Tann class were laid down, with only eight guns, but of a new 30.5cm (12”) design, and mounted in such a way to allow all eight to fire across either broadside. The ship was designed to make 24 knots, though upon trials SMS Von der Tann managed 25 easily.
The next new dreadnought class was once again a battleship, the Kaiser-class. These ships boasted a broadside of ten 30.5” guns, mounted similarly to the Von der Tanns in order to allow the wing turrets to fire across the deck in a limited arc. The class was followed up by another battlecruiser class, the Derfflingers, which mounted the same main gun layout as the Kaisers and made use of the new steam turbine engines to make 25 knots as designed.
Despite questions of the usefulness of the type, a new class of protected cruisers was ordered as well. It was argued that the battlecruisers could not necessarily provide all required scouting duties, especially if drawn off to deal with enemy raiders, and were too expensive to risk screening the battle line from destroyers, the other traditional role of the protected cruiser. Wartime experience with the Kolberg-class showed their four 17cm guns were impressive, they suffered from the same issues as the older battleships - their salvoes were too small for effective fire. Therefore, the admiralty ordered a class of ships with an intermediate caliber battery in order to have a sufficient number of barrels to effectively hit targets, with guns that could effectively engage either similar cruisers or destroyers. In a nod to survivability, a speed of 25 knots was requested, in order to at least keep the distance with contemporary battlecruisers. Thus, the Hamburg-class was born, although only four ships would be completed by the end of the decade due largely to the Kaiser’s continuous demands for more capital ships. After the designs were sent to the yards, the naval office provided sketches for an “armored Hamburg” concept, a ship that was essentially identical but did away with the internal deck in lieu of a proper belt and deck, shielding a much larger internal volume from fire. While it was deemed too late to alter the existing designs already under construction, it seems the Hamburg-class will be a transitional ship - the last of the protected cruisers, but bearing some hallmarks of the new “light armored cruisers” which were to come.
On the capital ship side, the German navy had drawn up plans for a warship which, they hoped, would cause as much of a stir as Dreadnought herself - the Prinzregent Luipold class of battleships, which carried ten 35cm (13.8”) guns - a design combining the larger gun caliber of traditional dreadnought with the greater number of guns of the Prince of Wales type. The ship’s guns were all to be mounted on the centerline, allowing better turret arcs and reliability than earlier cross-deck fire ships - peacetime gunnery practice had shown significant blast effects when firing across the deck, and so the practice was discontinued outside of actual conflict. Four ships were laid down - again, at the urging of Kaiser Wilhelm.
However the French seemed to have beaten Germany to the punch - in 1910, the Marine Nationale commissioned two battleships of the Indomptable-class, also bearing ten 14” guns - although the French ships could only fire eight to a broadside. The new type is becoming known as a “super-dreadnought,” and seems poised to sweep the world’s navies much as the original dreadnought type did.
Prelude to War
During this period of naval buildup, tensions were once again rising with France, the old enemy. The first crisis was an attempt by the French to establish control in Mozambique, in order to reestablish a foothold in southeastern Africa. The Germans intervened strongly, stationing SMS Emden and SMS Scharnhorst to the region as well as strengthening German garrisons in the region. Ultimately the French backed down, though much grumbling was had in the papers about German obstructionism. Scarcely a year later, Germany would undertake a similar venture - this time successful - taking advantage of a rebellion in the northern part of the Korean Empire to land troops, in conjunction with the Japanese, who also hoped to extend their influence on the peninsula. However, once the warlord was subdued, a pro-German protectorate was set up, disappointing Japanese ambitions in the region. While there was no incident in Europe over the act, tensions did rise, particularly with France - who accused Germany of engaging in the same sort of blatant land-grab it had accused France of earlier - and Japan, who declined to renew the alliance when its term expired. In exchange, in light of the tensions rising with France once more, an agreement was signed with Italy - giving France a force to worry about in the Mediterranean, and fueling Italian hopes of seizing French Mediterranean holdings.
The fraught nature of the dreadnought race did not create an environment conductive to the peaceful dissipation of tensions, with each power desperately trying to outdo their rivals. A similar attitude among army circles, combined with Kaiser Wilhelm's tendency to make bombastic claims, also contributed to a steady march towards war. Things boiled over in November 1910, when a rebellion in the young Kingdom of Norway began to get out of hand. The French, claiming the Norwegians had requested their aid, dispatched warships and troops towards the North Sea. The Hochseeflotte responded, intercepting the French and demanding they turned back. A French warship attempted to force its way past the German line and was fired upon, killing four French sailors and wounding several others. In the end the French withdrew, but issued a declaration of war on November 28th, 1910. The Second Franco-German War had begun.
Hello everyone! I have a Germany game underway, and on the eve of a war with France, I thought I'd try my hand at making it into an AAR. I wasn't making notes or taking screenshots up until this point, so I'll do a summary of the first decade of the game based on the information I do have and my own recollection, and then I'll proceed with the war. Should be a fun time, and I hope you enjoy it!
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A Brief History of the German Navy, 1900 - 1910Humble Beginnings, 1871-1905
Historically, the Kingdom of Prussia had never been much of a naval power. With only a relatively small Baltic sea coast, Prussia's land borders had always been far more important in terms of national defense. This was true even up through the Franco-Prussian war, where the small Prussian Navy gave a good accounting of itself despite the apparent superiority of the French Navy - though this was more indicative of issues within the Marine Nationale than of the quality of the Prussian ships.
The aftermath of the war brought changes to the small navy, now the Imperial German Navy. Most notably, if German had imperial ambitions, to expand in the new frontiers of Africa and Asia and to cement her prestige among the powers of Europe, she needed a navy worthy of the status. By folding the navies of the various north German states in with the Prussian navy, the new German Empire had a start, but it would not be enough - especially after Kaiser Wilhelm II took the throne in 1888. The Kaiser made it a personal goal to see Germany build a modern, capable navy - a navy to rival the likes of France or Great Britain. And so, in January 1900, the German High Seas Fleet had a respectable force of battleships and cruisers - not enough to reliably challenge the might of the Royal Navy, but certainly a force to be reckoned with on the European stage. But the next decade would not be a quiet one for the Imperial Navy.
The first few years of the decade were marked by a brief war with France in 1902, mostly over lingering tensions from the Franco-Prussian war. The war was not particularly decisive, especially at sea - for most of the war, the battle fleets simply postured at one another, though there were a few cruiser actions. Though the Hochseeflotte mostly managed to control the French Atlantic coast, no French warships were lost in the conflict, while the Germans suffered the loss of the Niobe-class protected cruiser SMS Ariadne and the destroyer S35 on October 10th, 1902. Still, the loss of the Atlantic ports and initial reverses on land brought a swift end to the war, with France surrendering Middle Congo and Madagascar to the growing German Empire in Africa, as well as inflicting some minor indemnities. It was a victory, to be sure, but not a stunning one like 1871 - it seemed France had learned from her earlier humiliation.
The Imperial Navy learned as well. Namely, that the 4" guns ubiquitous on their protected cruisers were not particularly effective, nor were a battleship's limited heavy guns given the limits of fire control. In response, the Posen-class of battleships, later called "semi-dreadnoughts," were laid down, mounting a secondary battery of twelve 21cm (8.1") guns in addition to her main battery of only slightly larger 24cm (9.4") guns, as well as the Kolberg-class protected cruisers, with four 17cm (6.7") and sixteen 7.5cm (3") guns, intended to make up for the lack of punch of earlier protected cruisers' 105cm guns. Additionally, the Emden-class armored cruisers were constructed, in order to give the Hochseeflotte the capability to take on the most powerful enemy armored cruisers on at least even terms, rather than having an eye towards raiding or patrolling colonial holdings.
The lessons learned would be put to the test a few short years later, as the German Empire went to war with Russia in 1904, this time with the benefit of an alliance with Japan. Once again, the Hochseeflotte established a blockade across the Baltic as the two powers mobilized. While the Japanese Navy was more than a match for the Russian ships in the Far East, a pair of Weissenburg-class battleships were dispatched along with escorts to Tsingtau, both to ensure German interests and as a show of good faith.
The first few months saw minor cruiser skirmishes with little damage to either side. An attempted Russian raid against East Prussia and Pomerania was intercepted, and in the chase along the coast from Kolberg to Swinemünde, the Russian battleship Imperator Nikolai I was torpedoed, cut off, and sunk. The Imperial Russian Navy was not ready to give up. Unlike the French two years earlier, the Russians made several attempts to lift the blockade. Convoys shipping critical iron ore from Sweden, escorted by German battleships, were on two separate occasions attacked by Russian capital ships, though the actions were mostly indecisive. Russia lost a handful of cruisers, though the Emden-class armored cruiser SMS Mainz was lost to a torpedo when she failed to turn away from a Russian destroyer division. No survivors from the bridge were recovered - it is unknown what caused the ship to simply continue on its course towards the enemy - perhaps a misunderstood signal, or rudder issues, or some failure to communicate between the bridge and the helm. None who could say the cause survived the sinking.
Though the loss of the Mainz stung, the blockade continued over the winter. In the spring, after poor weather delayed plans, a detachment of Imperial Marines secured a foothold near Port Arthur, followed ashore by elements of the German Army staged through Tsingtau. These forces laid siege to the Russian port, which was too strongly held to be seized in a direct assault. In Europe, the army scored a major success on land, striking suddenly from East Prussia in coordination with forces from Germany proper. The sudden attack saw the destruction of an entire Russian army near Tannenberg, followed by the near-destruction of a second which attempted to stabilize the situation. The campaign resulted in major gains for the Germans on land.
On April 7th, 1905, the Russians made a final bid to break the blockade, sortieing their entire fleet into the Baltic. The Hochseeflotte steamed to meet them. The German armored cruiser force pushed forward to engage their opposite number, while the two battlelines ponderously exchanged fire. It appeared that the battle would be yet another indecisive engagement, when the German admiral saw a chance he had not been offered in previous fleet encounters - the Russian line had become ragged, and the three rearmost Russian battleships were trailing behind the rest of the fleet. The Germans drove into the gap, splitting them from their support and mercilessly hammering the stricken battleships as the armored cruisers were recalled to close the trap. The Russian line made attempts to break through to their comrades, but these were halfhearted - faced with a German line in good order and with sufficient destroyers in support, there was little they could do. By the end of the day, the three battleships - Tsesarevich, Imperator Aleksandr I, and Retvizan had been sunk by a combination of gunfire and torpedoes, as well as the armored cruiser Varyag, the protected cruiser Yakhont, and a Russian destroyer. In exchange, the German Navy lost the older armored cruiser SMS Roon to a torpedo, as well as the destroyer V44.
While it was not the crushing defeat that the admirals had hoped for, it was certainly a more decisive action than had been seen between modern battleships thus far, and the Russian Navy did not make another serious attempt to break the blockade. With the army in Europe still scrambling to recover from its defeat and the fleet offering no prospects to turn things around, the Czar sought terms. The Baltic States were broken off from the Russian Empire, and German-friendly governments (some may say puppets) were installed in exchange for a withdrawal from Port Arthur.
The Dreadnought Race, 1905-1910
Despite its success in the Russo-German war, the Kaiserliche Marine could not rest on its laurels. Before the war had ended, reports of a new type of ship were filtering out of Britain, France, and the United States - the Dreadnought. All three nations were rumored to be building new battleships to an “all big gun” pattern, threatening to make the fleets of older battleships obsolete. Not long after the war, in 1906, HMS Dreadnought was commissioned, confirming what intelligence believed was true - armed with six 14” guns, her firepower was a step above all existing battleships. In 1907 the French dreadnought Charlemagne entered service, as did the US dreadnought USS Constellation - although the latter ship was a new type of warship called a battle-cruiser, combining the armament of a battleship with the speed of a cruiser. In the span of two years, the battleships and cruisers of the world had been rendered obsolete.
At the urging of the Kaiser, the Imperial German Navy entered the “dreadnought race” as soon as the war was done. The Ostfriesland-class battleships only carried 28cm (11”) guns, smaller than contemporary dreadnoughts, she mounted twelve of them in an arrangement that allowed her to fire eight to a broadside - while some in the navy and in the government criticized the choice of smaller guns, ultimately it was decided that the improved volume of fire would outweigh the range and individual hitting power of Dreadnought-style battleship guns. The choice was largely vindicated when the second British dreadnought HMS Prince of Wales, completed while the Ostfrieslands were under construction, utilized ten 12” guns in a similar arrangement. While other navies would experiment between traditional dreadnoughts and “Prince of Wales type” dreadnoughts, the Kaiserliche Marine would exclusively build the latter type.
The Battlecruiser USS Constellation was soon followed by similar ships in other navies, and the Kaiser demanded an answer - arguing that the new ships were larger, more heavily armed, better armored, and faster than existing cruisers, and therefore the German Navy would have no answer to the type in the event of war. While the argument was valid, the demand that the navy build four such ships put pressure on a naval office which would have rather continued building the battleline up first - it was believed that a battlecruiser would make unacceptable sacrifices in armor in order to achieve the necessary speed. Nevertheless, four ships of the new Von der Tann class were laid down, with only eight guns, but of a new 30.5cm (12”) design, and mounted in such a way to allow all eight to fire across either broadside. The ship was designed to make 24 knots, though upon trials SMS Von der Tann managed 25 easily.
The next new dreadnought class was once again a battleship, the Kaiser-class. These ships boasted a broadside of ten 30.5” guns, mounted similarly to the Von der Tanns in order to allow the wing turrets to fire across the deck in a limited arc. The class was followed up by another battlecruiser class, the Derfflingers, which mounted the same main gun layout as the Kaisers and made use of the new steam turbine engines to make 25 knots as designed.
Despite questions of the usefulness of the type, a new class of protected cruisers was ordered as well. It was argued that the battlecruisers could not necessarily provide all required scouting duties, especially if drawn off to deal with enemy raiders, and were too expensive to risk screening the battle line from destroyers, the other traditional role of the protected cruiser. Wartime experience with the Kolberg-class showed their four 17cm guns were impressive, they suffered from the same issues as the older battleships - their salvoes were too small for effective fire. Therefore, the admiralty ordered a class of ships with an intermediate caliber battery in order to have a sufficient number of barrels to effectively hit targets, with guns that could effectively engage either similar cruisers or destroyers. In a nod to survivability, a speed of 25 knots was requested, in order to at least keep the distance with contemporary battlecruisers. Thus, the Hamburg-class was born, although only four ships would be completed by the end of the decade due largely to the Kaiser’s continuous demands for more capital ships. After the designs were sent to the yards, the naval office provided sketches for an “armored Hamburg” concept, a ship that was essentially identical but did away with the internal deck in lieu of a proper belt and deck, shielding a much larger internal volume from fire. While it was deemed too late to alter the existing designs already under construction, it seems the Hamburg-class will be a transitional ship - the last of the protected cruisers, but bearing some hallmarks of the new “light armored cruisers” which were to come.
On the capital ship side, the German navy had drawn up plans for a warship which, they hoped, would cause as much of a stir as Dreadnought herself - the Prinzregent Luipold class of battleships, which carried ten 35cm (13.8”) guns - a design combining the larger gun caliber of traditional dreadnought with the greater number of guns of the Prince of Wales type. The ship’s guns were all to be mounted on the centerline, allowing better turret arcs and reliability than earlier cross-deck fire ships - peacetime gunnery practice had shown significant blast effects when firing across the deck, and so the practice was discontinued outside of actual conflict. Four ships were laid down - again, at the urging of Kaiser Wilhelm.
However the French seemed to have beaten Germany to the punch - in 1910, the Marine Nationale commissioned two battleships of the Indomptable-class, also bearing ten 14” guns - although the French ships could only fire eight to a broadside. The new type is becoming known as a “super-dreadnought,” and seems poised to sweep the world’s navies much as the original dreadnought type did.
Prelude to War
During this period of naval buildup, tensions were once again rising with France, the old enemy. The first crisis was an attempt by the French to establish control in Mozambique, in order to reestablish a foothold in southeastern Africa. The Germans intervened strongly, stationing SMS Emden and SMS Scharnhorst to the region as well as strengthening German garrisons in the region. Ultimately the French backed down, though much grumbling was had in the papers about German obstructionism. Scarcely a year later, Germany would undertake a similar venture - this time successful - taking advantage of a rebellion in the northern part of the Korean Empire to land troops, in conjunction with the Japanese, who also hoped to extend their influence on the peninsula. However, once the warlord was subdued, a pro-German protectorate was set up, disappointing Japanese ambitions in the region. While there was no incident in Europe over the act, tensions did rise, particularly with France - who accused Germany of engaging in the same sort of blatant land-grab it had accused France of earlier - and Japan, who declined to renew the alliance when its term expired. In exchange, in light of the tensions rising with France once more, an agreement was signed with Italy - giving France a force to worry about in the Mediterranean, and fueling Italian hopes of seizing French Mediterranean holdings.
The fraught nature of the dreadnought race did not create an environment conductive to the peaceful dissipation of tensions, with each power desperately trying to outdo their rivals. A similar attitude among army circles, combined with Kaiser Wilhelm's tendency to make bombastic claims, also contributed to a steady march towards war. Things boiled over in November 1910, when a rebellion in the young Kingdom of Norway began to get out of hand. The French, claiming the Norwegians had requested their aid, dispatched warships and troops towards the North Sea. The Hochseeflotte responded, intercepting the French and demanding they turned back. A French warship attempted to force its way past the German line and was fired upon, killing four French sailors and wounding several others. In the end the French withdrew, but issued a declaration of war on November 28th, 1910. The Second Franco-German War had begun.
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That catches up with where I am in the game so far - with an overview of the dreadnought race and the runup to the war done, I figure I'll do an overview of the German and French navies, then start playing out the conflict and report what happens here. This may just be a mini-AAR covering the war, or I may keep it going longer - we'll see! Anyway, thanks for reading!
